Title: Alone With You in the Ether
Author: Olivie Blake
CHICAGO, SOMETIME—
Two people meet in the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist, undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. But this is not a story about endings.
For Regan, people are predictable and tedious, including and perhaps especially herself. She copes with the dreariness of existence by living impulsively, imagining a new, alternate timeline being created in the wake of every rash decision.
To Aldo, the world feels disturbingly chaotic. He gets through his days by erecting a wall of routine: a backbeat of rules and formulas that keep him going. Without them, the entire framework of his existence would collapse.
For Regan and Aldo, life has been a matter of resigning themselves to the blueprints of inevitability—until the two meet. Could six conversations with a stranger be the variable that shakes up the entire simulation?
Gawd I felt out of breath listening to this!
For ages I listened to this and wondered if I liked it, if I got it, questioning myself! But then I realised I did get it, I liked it. So much so, l listened to it in one sitting!
Regan and Aldo find each other and have their own brand of love which basically borders obsession and sex but also of understanding and respect for each other, well that’s what I took away from this anyway!
Regan has a mental disorder and Aldo is a loner type genius but their journey made me feel breathless! There were some disturbing moments and some situations I didn’t really agree with but it was their journey.
If you read this, make sure to read the acknowledgements.
CJRTB Books 