Jun 27, 2020 Staff Reads: In Five Years: A Novel
You know the standard “Where do you see yourself in five years?” question that every job interviewee prepares to answer? Dannie, the main character of In Five Years by Rebecca Serle, has her answer down. Her future is mapped out with a successful law career and upcoming wedding to longtime beau David. Nothing will disrupt her known trajectory. That is, until Dannie has a strangely real dream in which it is five years later where she seems to be blissfully married and wildly attracted to some man named Aaron. Dannie awakens disturbed by the unfamiliar joy her dream-self seems to have. And when her lifelong bestie Bella introduces her new love, the mystery man from Dannie’s dream, Dannie is more unsettled. The story ends at that five year mark and, needless to say, the future Dannie planned unravels.
This book was a great, easy summer read, a lighthearted distraction from the heaviness of all that is pandemic. (Wouldn’t we all like to have a window into five years from now to be reminded that life can be normal again?) This book perfectly fills the need for distraction. I was surprised by a “heavier” part of the story, but that turned out to be the best part of the book for me–the enduring nature of friendship.
I appreciate the quick escape the book provided, and the meaningful friendship part, but Dannie was hard for me to identify with or like, and her life in New York City seemed contrived and inauthentic. Ultimately, my curiosity in knowing what happens to Dannie is what drove me to finish the book. I recommend it, but we’ll see if I’ll remember it In Five Years.