Love is a Canoe

by: Ben Schrank
Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books
Dates Read: May 7 - July 1, 2016
Pages: 342
Source: Library

Why did I read it?
I was wandering my local library on a cold day and BAM there was a book called Love is a Canoe.  The past few summers I had really grown to enjoy canoeing.  I have great memories with friends and youth.  It was one of those snap decisions where I just grabbed the book 100% based on the title alone.  

I guess it wasn't a complete bust.  This book follows a few story lines all intermingled and mixed.  The first is of an old widower who authored a book call 'Marriage is a Canoe' based on his wonderful, happy marriage and the advice he learned from his grandfather while in a canoe.  His wife has died recently, he doesn't know what to do anymore, and is now in a basically loveless relationship with a new women he'll never commit to because she is not his late wife.  The irony is that now he is going against almost everything he wrote in his book 25 years ago.  Flash over to the publishing company editor trying to make it big by bringing the book back for it's 25th year.  She comes up with the idea to run a contest for a couple having hardships to write in and win a day hanging out with the supposedly wise old man in hopes to fix their marriage.  Skip over to the young newly-ish married couple who are already having marital problems because the husband is just too good-looking and can't say no.  

I think you can see where all of this meets in the middle.  The story was pretty meh.  There were all kinds of little subplots thrown in that didn't really add a whole lot.  I think the author may have been trying to make the book fatter for show.  You can pretty well see where all of it is going.  The main question is will this young couple get divorced or not - aka. can the widower give good advice now that his wife has died?  It didn't really leave me up in arms wondering.  I was so disinterested I didn't really care which way it went.  I ended up just pushing through the book amidst my pre-summer busy-ness for the sole reason of being out of renewals from the library.    


Rating: 2.5/5
Love is a Canoe is somewhere between a "didn't like it" and a "liked it."  It had it's moments.  The writing itself wasn't bad, it was the plot that didn't have me enraptured.  I might give Schrank a second chance if he has another eyecatching title like this one. 

Recommendation: 
I'm not sure I would recommend this book to many people.  You won't totally hate yourself for picking it up, but it won't be the greatest thing you read all year....probably not even the greatest thing you read all month.  It lives in the nebulous of a 2.5 rating.