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"From "America's librarian" and NPR books commentator Nancy Pearl comes an emotionally riveting debut novel …

Review of 'George & Lizzie' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I liked it.

I have weird feelings about the title characters. Lizzie is the most selfish, toxic, negative, unfulfilled, delusional person I've encountered in a long time. But I sympathized and cared for her. And George seems like parody of a savior, an unflappable smiling buddha pigeonholed into the "I'm going to save her" role. But I liked him and thought he was earnest.

Buddha cast as a dentist, by the way, is hilarious. Pain is inevitable. Suffering is not. Be sure you floss.

The ending was complicated for me as well. It certainly wasn't an ending to their story, but merely a departure point for the readers from their lives, and so I can't help but feel a little bummed that I can't see what happens next. But, as the poem at the end suggests, at this point healing and love and life for George and Lizzie are probably happy but as mundane as maintenance and putting WD-40 on squeaky hinges. So they can have that part and I'll be content with the bit of their story I got to enjoy.