Falling in Love With a Swede

Benny and Shrimp starts up where the majority of romantic comedies end. It's about the argument Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks had in the cab ride away from the Empire State Building about whether they'd live in Seattle or Baltimore. Or the moment when Richard Gere sighs and tells Julia Roberts it's about damn time she learned which fork to use and stopped safety pinning her stupid boots and buy some new ones. Benny and Shrimp meet cute at a cemetery (...did I say cute? maybe it's creepy?) and spend the next 200 pages dealing with the fact that he's a farmer who wants somebody to make him meatballs and needlepoint kittens onto his pillows and she's a librarian who wants somebody to go the opera and restaurants with her. Somehow, this isn't annoying, it's endearing in a we've-all-been-here sort of a way and you find yourself wondering if there's a way Shrimp can crochet while she's at the opera with Benny. The book doesn't really end, which would be annoying if it weren't so metaphorical and emblematic. Also, the book was translated from the original Swedish which means people have really fun names and there are lots of umlauts. Just sayin'.