All the Beautiful Things You Love is the second novel by journalist, Jonathan Seidler. It follows Elly, a woman in her mid-thirties, in the days and weeks following the breakdown of her marriage. She attempts to deal with the pain of losing her relationship by getting rid of all the things in their once-shared apartment that remind her of Enzo.
The blurb says that Enzo has suddenly walked out on Elly, but more accurately he has literally climbed out of the window and walked off never to return after some sort of fight.
Throughout the interactions Elly has with the strangers who come to haggle over the belongings she is selling on Facebook marketplace, the reader learns more about the nuances of the fight that led to this relationship implosion, and begins to wonder if there is really a right side and a wrong side to this argument.
Oh yes, and the book has a soundtrack. Some of the tracks are excellent – I was grateful to be reminded that The Klaxons exist. Some were very random, such as the Atomic Kitten song about soccer (football) coming home again. The musical choices were a kind of shorthand into understanding the characters. Enzo, for example, is the kind of person who loves listening to artists like Skepta; whilst Enzo and Elly’s particular song that was theirs proves quite significant to the plot.
At times, reading All the Beautiful Things You Love felt more like reading an interconnected series of short stories than a novel. Each section is thematically structured around the item that Elly is selling – whether that be a particular limited edition vinyl record, an heirloom couch, or her bike. It takes the reader on a journey from the moment that the item came into Enzo’s and Elly’s lives, the memories they have surrounding it, through to, finally, someone buying it.
For the most part, Elly makes good connections with the people she is selling to, such as the young father who despairs of ever being able to move the dining table on his own, or the older woman who loves The Sopranos and teaches Elly a little bit about letting go. There is even a charming art collector type who plays an almost fairy godmother type role in Elly’s story, and I would love to believe that people like that exist, much as I struggle to.
Enzo is ever present on the edges of these stories and in the flashbacks, but we never get to meet him in the realtime progression of the tale, aside from these interludes that weave between Elly’s sections, giving the impression that the two characters are ships passing in the night.
The structure of the novel plays with perspective too, with some sections being told in third person and others in first person. The first time that it happened, I had to go back and check that, yes, the point of view had changed. It continues to change throughout the book, but I couldn’t confidently say what the playfulness with this perspective was meant to indicate.
All the Beautiful Things You Love is a quick, enjoyable read and the idea in and of itself is rather ingenious. But at times, it is a little too light on its subject matter. The result is that when you really find out why Elly and Enzo broke up, you might not be prepared for it.
Read this one if you like early 2000s sitcoms, books that make a lot of music references, and Nick Hornby books. I think this would probably make an excellent film too.
THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
All the Beautiful Things You Love by Jonathan Seidler is available now from Pan Macmillan Australia. Get yourself a copy from your favourite bookstore HERE.
