All We Know of Love

Title: All We Know of Love
Author: Nora Raleigh Baskin
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Year Published: 2008/2013
Pages: 201
Price: USD 6.64 at The Book Depository

The story of this book evolves around Natalie during her 24 hours trip to find her mother. Four years before, her mother left Natalie and her father without any explanation. Just later she found out that her mother currently was living in Florida. Natalie then took a 24 hours trip by bus to Florida to seek for explanation.

Being alone, Natalie thought about what actually had happened to her life during her mother's absent. Her relationship with her dad, her friendhip with her friend, Sarah, and also her on-and-off relationship with a guy named Adam.

But Natalie actually never really alone in the bus. She met many people who interacted with her during such a little time of their encounter. People who also had their own problems and experiences.

Will Natalie succeed in finding her mother?


Actually I kinda confused of what the author tried to say with this book. When I first reading its blurb, I thought I would find a story about a girl who learned so many things about life from many random people she met during her trip. You know, a typical road trip story. Yes, Natalie started the trip with some problems in her life and yes, she met and interacted with people with different live stories but all those other people didn't share their stories to Natalie. Only the readers knew what really happened to those people because the author decided to write it in the form of those people's memory, not in the form of their interactions with Natalie. So, did Natalie get affected by their life experiences? I don't think so. And about the connection of the title with the story, I cannot find it either. I kinda confused, what kind of love did the author try to deliver?


However, I still find Natalie's journey interesting. Natalie had her mother gone out from home without knowing why. All she could do was guessing. And when she found out that her mother had been conceived when she married Natalie's father, Natalie began to feel that maybe she was the reason why her mother left. Maybe her mother never really wanted the marriage. Maybe her mother never really wanted her to exist. Natalie needed to find her mother for explanation. And during her journey, we also knew that she really needed her mother. 

What I can connect about this book and real life is that maybe in our lives, we have so many questions but don't know how to ask and too afraid to hear the answer. Natalie's journey actually didn't solve all of her problems but at least she was brave enough to take action and make her questions answered.

I really hope that the author wrote more pages so that I could understand Natalie's life more. But well, it has already done and actually I think I kinda enjoyed reading this book.