Out of Love is one of those novels that has the power to blow away all the other books on your TBR pile. A headlining act.
The main themes with which it is concerned are nothing new – love and heartbreak. However, Hazel Hayes has written with an honesty and wisdom that is fresh and insightful.
After a break up, a young woman considers the relationship that led to her broken heart. Anyone who has been through a painful break up will know the time spent turning over the good times and the bad, trying to figure out exactly when things went rotten. Was it ever right? When did they stop loving me? And though Hayes is not the first author to consider love lost – far from it! – she has demonstrated a rare gift. She has written on love and heartbreak in such a way that it feels almost as though it had never been written about before.
Artists of all sorts have been inspired by heartbreak. We have the novels, songs, poems, paintings, and films to prove that. But when we must experience it for ourselves, it still feels gigantic, profound, and lonely.
And so, we turn to those works. For me, during my own last heartbreak, I remember playing a lot of Jeff Buckley. For others, you could do a lot worse than Out of Love.
Though, it is not only the heartbroken that might find something wonderful here . . .
In telling this story from the end of the relationship to the beginning, Hazel Hayes leaves the reader with all the hope and healing with which we begin romantic relationships. If it had been told the other way, we might be left feeling that it is a story of tragedy, of love turned foul. But there is healing and hope there in the relationship. Though it might not last, and though the ultimate destination might be painful, the journey was full of value.
In the end, it turns out, this is not a book about broken hearts, not entirely, but a book about the value of love. It is a book about what love can teach us, how it can heal. And why we ought to be open to it, despite past pains and losses.
My advice? At the risk of this posting being a tad to heavy on praise – though I think this novel is worthy – I will just say, read this book!
You can purchase a copy of Out of Love by Hazel Hayes here.
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