5 stars.
Having heard that I was facing another light read, I was not terribly optimistic after my last read. However, I had nothing to fear. I found the overall topic of "The Authenticity Project" very interesting. Clare Pooley has crafted a story that I think a lot of people can relate to. I certainly could, as my life has been anything but authentic in recent times.
Pooley takes characters like me and puts them through a story of rebirth. Many stories of rebirth exist in literature, and one of my favorites from childhood was "The Secret Garden" by Frances Burnett. I noted a few similarities between the two novels - not the least of which were that gardening is a motif in "The Authenticity Project," and Burnett's work is even mentioned in the text.
This is not to say, of course, that the book does not touch on difficult issues. It touches on several, such as marital strain, honesty and its consequences, and the effects negative experiences can have on people.
The most important of these issues to Pooley seems to be the artificiality of social media, a message with which I concur. People have not put their real selves forward, choosing instead to show a sugarcoated version. This is discussed throughout the book - including in certain parts that I felt were too heavy-handed.
I do agree with the criticism shared by other readers that it was slightly unrealistic in that there were too many coincidences. If a story seems too perfect to be true, it becomes unrealistic, and its readers will notice. If the events of this story happened in real life, it is unlikely that everything would fit together that well. However, I chose not to dock a star because some things can be forgiven for the sake of a good story.
"The Authenticity Project," perhaps unavoidably as a British novel, is full of references to British culture. They are as diverse as "Harry Potter" - "Monica went to make [Julian's] coffee, feeling like she'd just been awarded ten points for Gryffindor" (40) - to the Sex Pistols - "he had not thought that he'd spend his time playing air guitar while a geriatric belted out the lyrics of 'Anarchy in the UK' into an empty beer bottle masquerading as a microphone." (99)
I will commend Pooley on her excellent use of third person limited. All the information in a character's chapter (she switches point of view characters every chapter) is that of the character in question. She never tips a hand as to what another character is thinking until his or her chapter.
Innumerous times, she shows a scene from more than one perspective, often giving more information the second time around. It may be making a claim that contradicts another, such as saying that a person uttered acertain phrase "keeping his voice low so [she] wouldn't hear" (15) and then the other point of view character affirming she did hear it and that he uttered it "deliberately pitching his voice just loud enough for her to hear." (21) Or it may be using information to enlighten a reader further about another character's intentions without making a contradiction, such as discussing a "tense moment" when a character looks at the point of view character's books and finds potentially embarrassing titles (93) and then explaining in his point of view chapter that it was only to see if the books were alphabetically sorted (100-101).
I may be digressing a little too much. A lesson that virtually everyone has heard some form of but "The Authenticity Project" demonstrates is that one action can go a long way. The action taken at the book's beginning drives the whole plot, and this was not lost on me.
I was worried that Pooley would not find a natural ending point. Without spoiling anything, let it be said that she sticks the landing completely. The story is brought full circle, and there are even some surprises in the last act, including one big one.
In sum, "The Authenticity Project" may have been a light read, but I felt drawn in by it. It never let me go while I was reading, and it made me see the world just a little differently.