Book Review: What Could Have Been by Luke Melia

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

This review is a part of Outset Books Review Program.

The title What Could Have Been by Luke Melia itself suggests that we all tend to resort to some sort of a illusory perception, a dreamlike image, or a mirage which runs in parallel with the world we live in--- the world where the persistent boredom of our dreary and futile existence conceals the 'other' world that should have been and could have been just ours.

On a holiday in Greece, Dale and Suzanne plan to go on a boat trip, where the former happens to meet Heather. However, as the "tips of her fingers brushed the palm of his hand", everything went "pitch black". The author's use of such a brilliant narrative technique is completely in tune with the use of time, memory and nostalgia. Just as their reality went dark in an instant, a spark of imagination or the 'other' reality seems to ignite a space of their own--- just the two of them, creating innumerable possibilities of unfathomable desires. The author has amazingly penned down this conception of their own little world and the consequential clash that it undergoes when it comes in contact with reality: both the worlds existing simultaneously "like two different pieces of music playing in both ears at the same time, faintly, but always there". To make sense of why everything happens the way it is destined and not the way we want it is what creates chaos ("both melodies just grew louder.")

This book almost reads like a dreamlike experience. However, at times, the time leaps may confuse you but if you just not let it get the best of you, go with the flow, and let the narrative mesmerize you, you will gradually start getting the hang of it. The book cover has a lot to offer: There's a boat (since they were on a boat trip) and a family and a solitary person created by the waves. This wavy dimension gives the other world a shadowy impression, questioning us if it is or ever can just be as real as the world we live in.

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