The Authenticity Project
Written by Clare Pooley
Originally published in 2020
About 352 pages
Rate: 10/10
My summary of The Authenticity Project
Julian has been alone for the past few decades after his wife passed way, before her death he was a famous artist, but the weight of her absences was too much for him to bare, he became a hermit. One day he decides to create a book made for getting to know the people around you, he leaves the book at Monica's Café. Before Monica has the chance to get the book back to Julian, she reads what's inside and decides to intervene with Julian's life by offering him a job at her café as a art teacher once a week. Monica writes down her story, in her late thirties she feels she's running out of time to create a family. Once she's done spilling her guts out on paper, she leaves the book at a bar after stubbing into a rude drunk.
How soon will the chain reaction stop? Will Julian accept the position and feel a little less lonely? Will Monica ever find her dream man, or is she too picky?
My thoughts on The Authenticity Project
I absolutely loved this concept! The book they are passing around is called The Authenticity Project and the book we read is called The Authenticity Project and somehow it made these characters so much more than just characters on paper. I also think it's clever how once a person gets the book they sort of "T.A.P" in!
There are a variety of different characters in this book, but it's not in first person point of view so that actually really helped clarify which character was being talked about. If it was in first person point of view, I feel like that would have been hard for me. The characters within this book all have such different lives and experiences and seeing how they all connect with one another was amazing!
There was also a couple of plot twists toward the end. Some of them were foreshadowed a bit, and some of them were random, but it all makes sense in the end. I also liked the ending, it was beautiful, tragic, but peaceful. I think that everyone should read this book at some point in their lives, even if they don't have anything in common with any of the many characters.
Quotes
"Perhaps the compulsion to fill every inch of space was because it made him feel less alone, or because every single object was imbued with memories of happier times, and the objects had proven more reliable than the people." (83)
"At the beginning, he had looked at her as if she were a princess and he couldn't quite believe his luck. But he had not looked at her that way in a long time." (128)
"And that, she realized, was why she had stayed for so long: he had made her feel less than him, as if he were so much better than her in every single way, that she should feel happy just to be allowed to share his life, to hang in his firmament." (298)
"He had spent nearly two decades chasing the ultimate high, the most efficient way of making his brain fizz and his heart pump harder. And here it she was." (335)
Links
Barnes and Noble: T.A.P in