Life is not just black or white..there are Fifty Shades of Grey in between

 

Once again, I decided not to judge the book by its cover or even its reviews or outstanding numbers.

 

I bought the book (a friend of mine did, actually) and I started to read it voraciously, as soon as I finished dinner that day. I stopped at page 135 (more or so) in order to be able to sleep some hours before having to go to work. And for the next few days the ritual was the same until I finished it, on a Sunday morning, knowing that I would have to buy the English version of the two other books of the trilogy, since I would not be able to wait until Portuguese translation to come out.

 

Taking into account the above, you must already come to the conclusion that this will not be another bad review of Fifty Shades of Grey. So, if you were looking for one, you have some unfortunate luck because there are plenty around, just not here.

 

At this moment your judgmental thoughts are beguining to rise: "she must be some kind of frustrated soccer mum; poor girl she doesn't know any better, maybe she is not used to read, at least good books; and other prejudicial thoughts that people have when they live above ground, drenched in some kind of pseudo-intellectual superiority that make them feel special. I am not telling that everyone has to like the same books, or telling that if you don’t like this one you must be an arrogant bastard. Not at all. I just don’t agree with people who judge a book by its cover without even reading it, or have an opinion based on what must look better when I am trying to pass as an intellectual.

 

Well, having said this, please find below my impartial review of the book of the moment, as follows:

 

Fifty Shades of Grey is a book for romantics and other beings who still believe that love can, in fact, conquer all. Sounds cheese right? Maybe it is. But, although the author E. L. James may be far from wining a Noble prize, she was able to create, at least, two amazingly challenging characters to live their own love story before your eyes, with all that a love story entails.

 

Yes, it’s about sex too. And money, power and love. And all these ingredients are appealing to the public and sell like Coke in the desert. True.

 

But going back to the love part…This is a story of two completely different people that fall in love with each other and try to overcome their differences by compromising parts of themselves in the name of something more. Sounds familiar? The struggle for power in a relationship, for commitment, the doubts regarding the feelings of the other person, the trust issues, all the questions that may rise in a love relationship are there, incredibly described by the thoughts of the female character, Anastasia Steele.

 

In respect of sex and BDSM practices, it is important to mention that there aren’t so many described in the book, only a few and soft ones, like the good old spanking. Well, and taking into account the story is focused on the beginning of a relationship I think the sex scenes are of an adequate number. The difference between this book and other romances is that the love scene doesn’t stop at the kiss but continues all the way, making you enter the intimacy of that couple. Just that, nothing hardcore about it.

 

Negative points: (i) some of the expressions used by the author are expressions young people do not use for 20 years (for example: holy cow); (ii) the actions of Ms. Steele inner goddess are funny for the first and second time but after 25 times you really don’t care what her inner goddess is doing; and (iii) yes, maybe she blushes to many times throughout the book.

 

Apart from these, I believe the success of the page-turner of the year is well deserved as it embodies a realistic and modern love story that just makes you craving for more. If you are willing to overcome the above mentioned imperfections, and the stigma of being considered dumb for reading it, you have to read this book. The writing is not magnificent as Gabriel Garcia Marques’ is, but life is not just about black and white, perfection or nothing. And, in my opinion, the well-told story of Fifty Shades of Grey deserves the opportunity of considering some other colors. I don’t regret it at all. What can I say, I’m a romantic.