St. Joe’s students and professors weigh in on the best fictional love stories
It’s Valentine’s Day season, which means store shelves lined with heart-shaped boxes of chocolate and Instagram feeds flooded with sappy photos of couples. But, love isn’t always as perfect as it is portrayed. Sometimes, love is difficult, dramatic, and irrational, which is why the best romance fiction is usually that which portrays love in a more realistic light. When asked about their favorite romance novels, several Saint Joseph’s University’s students and professors chose more true-to-life fiction than that of fantasy.
Peter Norberg, Ph. D., English department chair, is not a fan of sappy love stories.
“I like tragedies more than stories that end in ‘happily ever after,’” Norberg said. “A lot of things immediately come to mind, but if I were to say any of these they would be more heartbreak or delusion.”
According to Norberg, the best love is that which is grounded in friendship, which is why he chose the relationship between Liesel and Max in “The Book Thief” as one of his all-time favorite love stories.
“Relationships and stories do similar things for people, in that they help them endure hardship by imagining an alternative future, one that’s hopefully better,” Norberg said. “They inspire us to hope to realize it. Although the ending of ‘The Book Thief’ is sad, Liesel and Max’s relationship mirrors what the author, [Markus] Zusak, is trying to do for his readers.”
Robert Templeton, Ph. D., professor in the education department and a former high school English teacher, chose John Fowles’ “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” as his favorite.
“It is a Victorian England story that addresses a liberated woman who meets up with the Rossetti’s, the Pre-Raphael artists and poets. It also includes a desperate search for her by a Victorian gentleman,” Templeton said. “It explores the late Victorian attitudes about women, especially as represented by Victorian nobility or gentlemen.”
As for Corinne Sinesi, ’19, a novel assigned for one of her classes, Jeffrey Eugenides’ “The Marriage Plot,” ended up becoming one of her favorites.
“I actually had to read it for class then related to it a lot so I bought it for myself,” Sinesi said. “It’s about an English major who obsesses over a romance novel because she basically finds comfort in it. Then it backfires and her life is in shambles so she has to reinvent herself. It’s a quirky and somewhat raunchy coming of age novel.”
Alisa Verrati, ’18, also noted Eugenides’ novel as one of her favorite romance novels.
“It’s very realistic. Not everyone ends up together in the end, and why would they?” Verrati said. “They’re only just starting their lives. Also because it’s comforting to read and humorous even when everything is falling apart, which is how we should look at life.”
Along with this, Verrati noted a classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel as another one she couldn’t get enough of.
“‘The Great Gatsby’ is another one of my favorites,” Verrati said. “It’s beautifully tragic and really paints a picture of heartbreak without telling there’s heartbreak. There is so much symbolism in the life Gatsby pursues for Daisy, yet at the end of the day she’s still cold.”
So, if you’re sick of mushy love stories, especially around Valentine’s Day, try checking out one of these more realistic novels for a refreshingly thoughtful read.
