Book Review: Everything I Know About Love
This book gave me major fomo, but also felt like your older sister who does all the weird shit so you don’t have to. I think the jury is still out as to whether I loved this book, but that is not to say I didn’t enjoy it. I laughed as much as I cried in this book because Dolly Alderton’s memoir of her 20s is a masterpiece to behold; it talks of a lost era before social media and that awful anxious entitlement where everyone has a camera and all your idiotic misdemeanours end up on TikTok. Ahh, the good old days. I miss them.
Lets talk about growing up, because that is predominantly what your 20s are for - you go to university in your late teens and you explore the fuck out of the world. Maybe you learn something, perhaps you didn’t. Maybe you did what Dolly did and explore the fuck out of your sexulaity and not learn anything… perhaps she did an essay here or there, but essentially she partied her arse off. This is where the fomo comes in for me. I didn't really end up at a ‘party uni’ and I lowkey wish I did. I also wish I didn’t resemble so much of her best friend so much as being THAT person who went to an all-girls school, and it being awkwardly obvious.
What impresses me the most about any memoir is how much people remember - how on earth did Dolly remember all those long-winded conversations she had with people, all the parties, the drugs and the alcohol? The long, brutal talks she has with her best friends and her therapist. How do you remember everything with such acute detail? True, she may have kept up a rigorous diary, and I think it is also true that certain moments in life are forever burned into your brain. Like, for Dolly, that moment when the fitest boy in class passed her a note to say she looked ugly. No girl would forget that in a heartbeat.
When I do feel like I lost something, I do also remember that a lot of my 20s was dominated by that little thing called COVID-19. So I know I'm not the only one who feels like they lost out. Mine was also marked by tragedy, so I, unlike Dolly, was somewhat relieved to leave my 20s behind, but feeling like my youth was slipping through my fingers at the same time. As a freshly ordained 30 year old, life does not stop here and you do not have to have your shit figured out. But it helps if you do. Your 20s is a time for you to grow the fuck up. I’m glad to say I did - I just wish my experience was a little more like Dolly’s, a lot more fun, colourful and carefree. Dolly’s is the ultimate coming-of-age story - as a child, you may have had ‘Little Women’ as your map. As an adult, ‘Everything I Know About Love’ should set you on your way.