''Landline'' is a 2014 American
sci-fi
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universe ...
novel by
Rainbow Rowell
Rainbow Rowell (born February 24, 1973) is an American author known for young adult and adult contemporary novels. Her young adult novels ''Eleanor & Park'' (2012), ''Fangirl'' (2013) and '' Carry On'' (2015) have been subjects of critical acclaim ...
. It tells the story of 37-year-old Georgie McCool who discovers that she is able to call her husband's 22-year-old self through his
landline
A landline (land line, land-line, main line, home phone, fixed-line, and wireline) is a telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber telephone line for transmission, as distinguished from a mobile cellular network, which uses ...
.
Rowell stated that aspects from the novel are loosely based on her own life such as the fact that Georgie is incredibly career-driven while her husband is a stay-at-home dad. The character of Georgie McCool was named after the song
Georgy Girl
''Georgy Girl'' is a 1966 British romantic comedy-drama, starring Lynn Redgrave in the titular role, with Charlotte Rampling, Alan Bates, and James Mason. Directed by Silvio Narizzano, the film was based on the 1965 novel by Margaret Forster. ...
and the village of
McCool Junction.
While the novel has sci-fi themes akin to
time travel
Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a ...
, these are used mostly as a plot device to describe the hardships of adult life and the crumbling marriage of main character Georgie McCool.
Plot
In 2013 Georgie McCool, a 37-year-old
sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...
writer, tells her husband Neal she will not be able to spend
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...
with his mother in
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...
, as she and her writing partner, Seth, have just gotten a writing assignment for four scripts for a mid-season pickup and have only ten days to deliver. Georgie suggests that she and Neal visit his mother after the holidays but Neal decides to leave for Christmas anyway, taking their two young daughters with him.
Neal is notoriously closed off but even so Georgie senses that he is angry at her as he leaves. Georgie asks him to call her when he lands.
In the writer's room Georgie and her writing partner Seth, whom she has been best friends with since college, attempt to write the pilot for their show which they have been working on for as long as they have known each other. After working all day and missing a call from Neal, Georgie goes home to her mother's house where her mother believes she has been dumped by Neal. Georgie calls Neal's mother's house from the landline and talks to him briefly.
The following day they talk again and through the conversation Georgie realizes that she is talking to a 22-year-old Neal back in 1998. Georgie begins to reflect back on their relationship. Georgie was initially joined at the hip with Seth and the two were co-writers for the ULA college
humor magazine ''The Spoon''. After several months of working there, Georgie noticed Neal, who worked as a
cartoonist for the paper, and became attracted to him. Much to Seth's jealousy, Georgie and Neal began a flirtation that developed into a relationship. One Christmas, shortly before she graduated they had a fight and Neal left for Omaha. Upon his return Neal abruptly proposed to Georgie. Georgie eventually realizes that she is talking to Neal during their break.
Initially believing she is having a nervous breakdown, Georgie nevertheless continues to talk to past-Neal especially since she is unable to reach the Neal of the present who refuses to answer his phone. The two discuss their relationship and, based on the conversations they have, Georgie realizes that what she is currently saying might have caused Neal to propose to her in the past. Reflecting that to propose to her Neal drove 27 hours straight from Omaha to Los Angeles, Georgie forgoes her writing with Seth and gets on a plane to spend Christmas with her family. In Omaha Georgie is stuck at the airport due to a heavy snowfall. She is given a ride to Neal's mother's house by Cather and Levi
Fangirl (novel)">Fangirl
A fan or fanatic, sometimes also termed an aficionado or enthusiast, is a person who exhibits strong interest or admiration for something or somebody, such as a celebrity, a sport, a sports team, a genre, a politician, a book, a movie, a vid ...
], who make a cameo appearance (we learn here that Cather is engaged). Though she is afraid that her conversations with past-Neal might have erased their future together and their children, she is pleasantly surprised to see her family intact when she arrives. She and Neal make up and resolve to work on their future together.
Reception
Although ''Landline'' is an adult novel in the style of ''Attachments'', it has a very adolescent vibe to it, in characteristic Rowell fashion. The book has won
Goodreads Choice Awards
The Goodreads Choice Awards is a yearly award program, first launched on Goodreads
Goodreads is an American social cataloging website and a subsidiary of Amazon that allows individuals to search its database of books, annotations, quotes, an ...
for Best Fiction Book of the Year, and has been featured on both Amazon and Kobo's Best Book of the Year lists.
The novel received mixed reviews.
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
called it "funny, clever, charming, endearing," while noting it paled in comparison to
Rowell's other books. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' gave the book a positive review calling
Rowell "talented enough to be uncategorizable".
The book also received attention from Canadian publication
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
who described it as "more than okay," and referred to it as a young adult novel.
References
{{italic title
Fiction set in 1998
Fiction set in 2013
2014 science fiction novels
2014 American novels
Novels about time travel
St. Martin's Press books