Book Review: Everything I Know About Love, Dolly Alderton

 

Dolly Alderton’s Everything I Know About Love

 

My rating: 5/5

 Quote: "I am enough. My heart is enough. The stories and the sentences twisting around my mind are enough. I am fizzing and frothing and buzzing and exploding. I'm bubbling over and burning up. [...] I am a just-pulled pint with a good, frothy head on it. I am my own universe; a galaxy; a solar system. I am the warm up act, the main event and all the backing singers."

I read this magnificent memoir at the perfect time in my life. The memoir takes you from teenage Dolly right up to present day Dolly. She is real, problematic, easy to relate to, and points out the worst parts of yourself. At times, it felt difficult to read, and I hate to admit I felt like I hated the protagonist, but that’s all part of it. It is so important to get to the end of this book. Dolly’s younger self projects problems over herself and her relationships, and reading about the acceptance, change, and dealing with this is insanely gratifying. You feel like you’ve been on a journey yourself. I was so immensely proud of Dolly by the end of the book: how far she’d come, for getting through so much, and how well she has written about it all. I wanted to dive into the book and be friends with the various characters that line her life and subsequently the pages of the memoir. It is witty, heartfelt, heart-breaking (I think we all have a Florence in our lives, and I hope we never have to lose them the way Dolly did), painful, hilarious, insightful, and most of all, hopeful. That is the biggest thing I took from Dolly’s memoir – there is always hope.

Life is complicated, difficult, painful, funny, wonderful, and all the rest, but there is always hope. I’m at the part of my life where I can choose to be terrified of the unknown, the decisions, the complications, the responsibilities, but Dolly has taught me to embrace it all. How fabulous that I get to decide what to do with my life? How amazing is it that I am in control of my future? How wonderful is it that I get to spend my time with my friends and family? How lucky am I that I even get a choice at all? I am so incredibly grateful for all I have, and so thankful for all of the choices I get to make. Not everyone is that fortunate. What a privilege. Dolly has taught me to relish in the unknown, in the space I have, not to fear it.

So, if you’re in that place right now where you feel a little stagnant, read this book. If you feel hopeful about the future, read this book. If your life is on full steam ahead, read this book. It is an insight into 21^st century life, love, and friendship, and I am in awe of all Dolly has accomplished despite all the shit she seems to have been (and put herself) through. One of my first delves into non-fiction, but the way it is written it feels like a novel in tone and creativity. An important book that I am so glad I picked up. Shoutout to my best friends for gifting it to me for my 21^st birthday. Perfect timing.

Ellen Victoria