For the past few years, I have been in a book slump. Not knowing what to read, nothing piquing my interest, and walking around Barnes and Noble aimlessly. Wanting to read something that will take me on an adventure with the characters, until one night on an app called Libby, I found this book called The Light We Lost by Jill Santapolo that follows the lives of Lucy and Gabe after meeting on a rooftop at Columbia University, the morning of 9/11.
If you have not read the book, this review is not going to be full of spoilers as I will be comparing parts of book to the late great Whitney Houston song, “Saving All my Love for You.” The book starts with the main characters Lucy and Gabe meeting on the rooftop of their university watching as the Twin Towers go up in smoke. They decide right then and there that their lives have to mean something, while also falling in love. Gabe’s girlfriend calls wanting to rekindle their relationship which he does willingly after falling for Lucy. She’s heartbroken but continues on with her life not knowing that after that day on the rooftop her and Gabe’s lives are forever intertwined. Lucy goes onto to live her dream of making her own show working with a network and Gabe finds his way back to her and they quickly realize that they are better together and start their lives. With their whirlwind romance going on Gabe sees that photography is his passion and he wants to pursue photojournalism during the wars in the Middle East. Away from Lucy, who decides to stay in New York pursuing her dream career, he goes and follows his. Over the next few decades, they weave in and out of each other’s lives with Lucy getting married and having kids who she loves dearly but her husband wanting a different life for her than she does, with Gabe still in her rearview. Between jobs overseas he comes in and out of her life creating a relationship that was never meant to last.
To relate the story to “Saving All my Love for You” Lucy has created a life for herself where she has a loving husband with kids and even a dog, but she can’t let go of Gabe. He is the Whitney Houston of this song, deciding that after fulfilling his dream he comes back home to see he has nothing to show of his life. No wife or children, just a collection of pictures over the years to look back on. “A few stolen moments is all that we share, You’ve got your family and they need you there…You used to tell me we’d run away together, Love gives you the right to be free, You said be patient just wait a little longer, But that’s just an old fantasy, I’ve got to get ready just a few minutes more, Gonna get that old feeling when you walk through that door, ‘Cause tonight is the night for feeling alright, We’ll be making love the whole night through, So I’m saving all my love… for you.” These are the parts of the song that explain Lucy and Gabe’s love, where they live for the moments they get to see each other escaping from their lives to meet and recreate the life and love they had when they were younger. With Lucy having a family she has to leave them to meet Gabe and even once brought her daughter because her husband asked her to, with Gabe eventually coming to the home and building a relationship with the young girl while the father was at work. One night they end up going a bit further with Gabe going on his last trip to the Middle East right after with Lucy concluding that she will always love him (see what I did there) and Gabe wanting a life with her once he gets back.
But as we all know life doesn’t go as planned and something happens that will make those few stolen moments feel like a lifetime. This book made me ugly cry at 2 am while also giving me that feeling I have been searching for that made me love books in the first place.