★BOOK REVIEW★ Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer

***** *****

ONE SITTING READ RIGHT HERE! ALL NIGHTER! MUST READ!
Re-read Oct, 22, 2014. Still ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 STARS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I don’t know where to start to explain you the whirlwind of emotions I experienced last night reading Love Virtually.
But let’s rectify something right now…
Who decided to just change the original title of this book? It was called in German : “Gut Gegen Nordwind : Good Against North Wind” And this makes so much more sense!

A little while ago I asked for a book recommendation on Goodreads, I wanted to know if there was possibly a good book out there with a very specific theme : long distance romance, email or chat correspondence.
A Goodread user answered me :

“Are you kidding? There’s no romance in email, txt, or ‘im chat’. Anyone who would even try to write a ‘romance’ with those elements would be a laughable author, at best. Try this (A. S. Bratt “Possession”), instead. Stay authentic! “

I obviously was not “kidding” at all. I met the father of my son 14 years ago this very same way.
And let me tell you it is very authentic, it was very romantic, we wrote to each other for 3 years, long emails, letters and phone calls. Romanticism can perfectly lives within virtual electronic ways, rest assured.
Is Daniel Glattauer a “laughable” author? Absolutely not! He is a genius.

THE STORY

It all started with Emmi, trying to unsubscribe from a magazine with an email which lands by a fortunate mistake in Leo’s email box.

Dear Sir/Madam at “LIKE” magazine,
Are you deliberately ignoring my attempts to cancel my subscription? If you’re trying to offload more copies of your rag which, let’s face it, is gradually going down the drain, I regret to inform you that I’m not going to pay another cent!
Best Wishes,
E. Rothner

It didn’t take me long to be hooked, the third email from Emmi’s just set the tone of what would be one of the most brilliant and clever dialogues I have ever read between two people. It was just like reading over Emmi and Leo’ shoulders, witnessing their mutual discovery of each other.

Leo had me with his first one… I quickly fell in love with his character.

You’ve sent your message to the wrong address. This is a private one : woerter@leike.com.
You want woerter@like.com. You’re the third person who’s sent me an email trying to cancel their subscription. It must be really a shocking magazine.

They both pretty quickly develop feelings toward each other without really crossing a virtual line, Emmi is a “happily married” woman after all…

Emmi, you can’t stop talking about sex. It’s pathological!

But that doesn’t stop her staking claim of her virtual soulmate… She just can’t stop herself, it was really comical AND sad considering the situation…

I’m sorry to say that yes, IT DOES MATTER TO ME WHEN, HOW, WITH, WHOM AND HOW OFTEN YOU HAVE SEX! If I am indeed somebody’s chosen “second voice” then I should also have the right to judge wether it’s appropriate when, how, with, whom and how often that person has sex.

The whole book is written in email format, no narration at all. I just completely overlooked the fact that no descriptions to their surroundings where given, focusing on their exchange, waiting for one of them to feed me crumbs about their lives. Daniel Glattauer just made it work! I couldn’t put this book down!

She – this Emmi with size 37 shoes – is beginning to interest me more than befits the nature of our correspondence.

I still don’t know where I am going with this review, weighting the pros and cons to tell you what is going to happen, or let you enjoy the discovery of their corresponding.
I just told some friends I would never recommend this book to someone I care about, just to spare them the trouble of having their heart ripped open.
If you know me, you should know by now that I hate giving out what is happening in a book unless you read it.
I love to experience every little details personally, which is why I often overlook a blurb and try not to read reviews beforehand.

…Has it occurred to you that we know absolutely nothing about each other? We’re creating virtual character, piecing together identikit fantasies of each other… We’re toying with and endlessly provoking each other’s curiosity by refusing point-blank to satisfy it… Each of us is trying desperately to build up an accurate picture of the other. And by the same time we’re being meticulous in not giving away anything fundamental about ourselves.

I think you have here an answer to the above, I would HIGHLY recommend EVERYONE to read this book.

Yes, by all means feel free to write to me! Type away all your frustration with men, from the depths of your soul. Unleash all your self-righteousness, cynicism and gloating. If you feel better afterwards, my inbox has done its job. If you don’t, then just treat yourself (or your mother) to another “LIKE” subscription and unsubscribe from “Leike” .

Love Virtually left me in a hot mess of feelings, it’s one of the best romance book I have ever read.
Why? Maybe because I have a story with corresponding by email to some stranger that you can’t live without. Yes, I met my Leo in very similar circumstances. My own virtual soulmate.
I invested myself a tad too much in their story, but the author did not exactly left me a choice here. You cannot NOT wish for Emmi and Leo an happy ending. I was mentally screaming for them to meet and declare their love.
(view spoiler)[Or I am the most horrible person in the world, because I truly wanted for Emmi and Leo to have their HEA, in spite of her “Happy Marriage”. (hide spoiler)]

It’s three o’clock in the morning. Is the north wind blowing?
Goodnight.

A SEQUEL IS AVAILABLE, HERE at Amazon