Jack Scott (2) (1960–)

The first impression I had was, wow this story is so well planned… and then I realized how stupid my thought was since this is not a “plot”, this is the real life of Jack and Liam, a committed couple living in London that suddenly decided to retire early and move to Turkey.

The strange thing is to think that this is real and so, why other people are not doing the same? Where are the cons of not having to spend most of your life sitting at a desk and instead waking each day without a plan to respect? And in a place like Bodrum, Turkey, that, all right, is not London or New York, but it’s nevertheless a city, with expatriates that will help Jack and Liam feeling like they are not so far from home, but only until the time they will be ready to really admit they moved on, and the strings with their home country are finally cut.

I really loved how Jack and Liam are clearly in love, even if there is no overwhelming scenes or declaration of eternal love; it’s in their everyday life, in Jack accepting to uproot his life to meet Liam’s need of freedom, in their missing each other even if they are apart only for few days, in knowing and accepting each other defects, but more than accepting, almost loving them.

There isn’t really a target in the story, and that is the main difference with a novel; we are not reading something an author plotted, we are reading what really happened to this couple, and the conclusion is that both of them managed to adapt to their new life, enough to be able to look back and write about it.

It’s a very easy reading, not like many other memoirs, it was really like being at dinner with friends vising from abroad, and listening to their tales, with that little envy you wished you had done the same, take your life in your hands, and becoming your own boss. Jack and Liam are not wealthy, they are middle class, and this choice can really be their debacle if they are not careful, but during the travel you are taking with them, you will learn that this is not their first “life”, both of them have pasts, loved and lost lovers, and not that they are together, and happy again, they want to be able to absorb all the happiness they can, each minute of each single day.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1904881645/?tag=elimyrevandra-20… (mais)