“This is what I want: I want to grab my brother’s hand and run back through time, losing years like coats falling from our shoulders.”
-Jude Sweetwine in I'll Give You The Sun
In I'll Give You The Sun, the story of the Sweetwine twins and their changed relationship in the face of tragedy is told by switching between the point-of-view of Jude and Noah. Jude was once socially adept, beautiful, the object of affection and jealousy. Noah was once artistically spirited and far less gifted when it came to social graces. Since the death of their mother, however, their roles have changed. Noah has lost touch with the budding prodigy he was once on the road to becoming and Jude has lost touch with, well, everybody that she used to call her friends. But through art, Jude may find her way back to her voice; and through his voice, Noah may find his way back to art. There is love and heartbreak, self-revelation and re-connection; and through all the years that the Sweetwine twins had lost themselves and lost each other, only the reader can see that they would have always given each other the sun.
I'll Give You the Sun does not follow the classic format of two teenagers finding their voices. It is not a coming-of-age type of story. Instead, it shows the reader what it is like to have always had a definite voice and to have, somewhere down the road of tragedy and disconnect, lost it. It's a hard novel to read without breaking a little bit because the reader is the only one who realizes that neither Sweetwine twin can truly get back to a place of acceptance and security with that original voice until they can get back to each other. And through the whole damn book it seems completely impossible that the emotional chasm separating Jude and Noah could ever close up. So the novel is kind of heartbreaking and every chapter made me worry more that neither character would get where they needed to be by the end of it, but that heartbreak only made me love it more.
I'll Give You The Sun was a piece of art. It moved me greatly. It hurt to read, but also hurt to finish because it is all I want in a novel. I've already recommended it to others. But to all those who I've told to read it, I've had to warn: you'll want nothing more than to shake the twins and force them back to harmony. You'll want to jump into the novel because you just can't wait for them to find their way back to each other. I'll Give You The Sun hurts.
-Jude Sweetwine in I'll Give You The Sun
In I'll Give You The Sun, the story of the Sweetwine twins and their changed relationship in the face of tragedy is told by switching between the point-of-view of Jude and Noah. Jude was once socially adept, beautiful, the object of affection and jealousy. Noah was once artistically spirited and far less gifted when it came to social graces. Since the death of their mother, however, their roles have changed. Noah has lost touch with the budding prodigy he was once on the road to becoming and Jude has lost touch with, well, everybody that she used to call her friends. But through art, Jude may find her way back to her voice; and through his voice, Noah may find his way back to art. There is love and heartbreak, self-revelation and re-connection; and through all the years that the Sweetwine twins had lost themselves and lost each other, only the reader can see that they would have always given each other the sun.
I'll Give You the Sun does not follow the classic format of two teenagers finding their voices. It is not a coming-of-age type of story. Instead, it shows the reader what it is like to have always had a definite voice and to have, somewhere down the road of tragedy and disconnect, lost it. It's a hard novel to read without breaking a little bit because the reader is the only one who realizes that neither Sweetwine twin can truly get back to a place of acceptance and security with that original voice until they can get back to each other. And through the whole damn book it seems completely impossible that the emotional chasm separating Jude and Noah could ever close up. So the novel is kind of heartbreaking and every chapter made me worry more that neither character would get where they needed to be by the end of it, but that heartbreak only made me love it more.
I'll Give You The Sun was a piece of art. It moved me greatly. It hurt to read, but also hurt to finish because it is all I want in a novel. I've already recommended it to others. But to all those who I've told to read it, I've had to warn: you'll want nothing more than to shake the twins and force them back to harmony. You'll want to jump into the novel because you just can't wait for them to find their way back to each other. I'll Give You The Sun hurts.