Book Review: Everything I Know About Love By Dolly Alderton
A book review on the newly published (at time of writing) memoir by Sunday Times columnist Dolly Alderton written for The National Student
Image credit: Joanna Bongard, courtesy of Penguin Books
Dolly Alderton’s memoir Everything I know About Love is one of those books that everyone agrees on: you’ve just got to read it. Teenagers in years to come will be sending it around on their iPhone 1000s, insisting that this is the book that will set you up for the world ahead. And they will be right.
This truly honest account gives every girl in her 20s hope that just because life isn’t figured out yet, doesn’t mean it’s over. Just because you’re not in your long-term career yet and don’t have a boyfriend doesn’t mean you’re failing at adulthood. It’s okay!
Alderton completely opens up, offering up the feeling that you’re two friends chatting over coffee as she retells her hilarious tales of drunk nights out, cruising down the motorway. The tone is so straightforward, as is Dolly. Here she is: this is me, and this is my life. It’s easy to devour this book in a couple of days whilst wishing it didn’t have to end, hoping that the stories will keep coming. By the end you’ll feel as though you’re part of her sisterhood.
Dolly’s vulnerability is heart-wrenching, and at many moments you just want to scoop her up and tell her it will be okay. Her honesty about the men in her life can resonate with most adults struggling to overcome the commitment barrier and wondering if there is something wrong with them. The book really does show us the highs and lows (no pun intended, but if you haven’t listened to her podcast, why not?) of every corner of Alderton’s life.
She talks honestly about her experiences with therapy, loss and grief, and shows us that whilst we can all be self-obsessed and pre-occupied, when something real happens, like the loss of a loved one, none of the other shit matters.
The constant reoccurrence on the pages is love and the power that it has. Everyone has their idea of what love is, and we’re often looking for it in all the wrong places. Alderton demonstrates that actually the most unlikely things can be loved, and can be your source of love: food, a dirty flat in Camden, the pub.
In the pages devoted to telling Florence’s story, you’re faced with the fact that in reality none of the commercial stuff matters. The aesthetics of life, your house, your job, your relationship status, means nothing when you’re faced with loss. And loss really does smack you right in the face without warning.
Alderton very honestly shares some heart-breaking stories, which leave you feeling quite vulnerable. She speaks openly about her struggles and relationship with food, exposing herself totally to the reader. She also describes her journey with anxiety and working through that with a therapist. Anyone who has experience with therapy will find themselves nodding along when she talks about the worries the day before your session, or the odd sensation after sitting for an hour staring at the god-awful carpet. This book is raw and brutally honest.
It is also absolutely hilarious. The majority of the stories Alderton re-tells are so crazy it’s hard to imagine how anyone can get themselves into these situations. This book is like the grown-up version of Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, with lots of sex, drugs and booze-fuelled nights. Reading about her uni nights out, pub crawls and dinner parties make you want to be in Alderton’s gang. You feel like you know all of her friends due to the exceptional detail given about each of them. Dolly’s friends are the backbone of this memoir and clearly the backbone of Dolly’s life. Everything I Know About Love shows us that love really is all around (yes I took that from the end of Love Actually, thank you Hugh Grant) and that maybe it takes all of us different ways to understand what our love is - and that’s because everyone’s love is different.
By the end of the book, Dolly has learnt to love herself more than ever, and that her greatest love affair is with her friends. From her best friend of 20 years, who she knows every minute detail about, to the friends she’s lived with since leaving university: they are her love and her passion. This book highlights the importance of female friendships and how they can carry you through even your darkest days.
Everything I Know About Love is available to purchase online and in-stores now.
