This week, we bring you a love story. Alain De Botton’s The Course of Love is a romance for people whose motto is, “Yeah, right.”

In it, boy meets girl. Boy wants girl. Boy gets girls.

But the story doesn’t stop there. No, this one takes the reader past those blissful early weeks when the two lovers think they just found the ticket to a more exciting and fulfilling life. We follow our couple straight into the years where they clash over each other’s annoying habits and erroneous world views.

And then, boy and girl have a boy and girl of their own. These children are adorable, even remarkable! Or so their parents believe.

But again, De Botton carries us into the years where the children turn on their parents, clashing over mom and dad’s embarrassing habits and erroneous world views.

Between the bicycle rides, the baby baths, the arguments and the family deaths, De Botton explains the human race, its hopes and sorrows, its a-ha’s and its mistakes. I found a few quotes that should be cross-stitched, also a few that deserved a rebuttal scribbled in the margin.

Given that life can be so . . . real, is it all worth it? That’s for you to find out.

Cow patties well signalled.

Photo credits:

The early years:   Makena G on Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC-ND

The middle years: Neil. Moralee on Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-ND

The later years: adwriter on Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC