Book Title: P.S.

I LOVE YOU by CECELIA AHERN

The Book P.S. I love by Cecelia Ahern published 2004 and reached No. 1 best-seller
status in Ireland (for 19 years), Britain, the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Cecelia Ahern, a 22-year-old daughter of Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, wrote
with insight beyond her debut novel, P.S. Love You, a book at once emotional and comical,
reflective and silly. Ahern credits her mom in encouraging her to finish writing the book.
She added she stayed up all night awake and slept during the day just to finish her first
novel book.

The novel tells about to hold on, to let go and to learn to love again. The book was
incredibly depressing until a little over half way through. The character of Holly was in
deep grief after losing her love of her life. The end part of the grief of her husband made me
emotional for days. I can’t imagine myself putting in her own shoe the situation of losing
the significant of my life. But at the end, Holly’s grief lessens as she let happiness and
opportunities into her life.

Few people hold up their entire lives to discover their perfect one. But not to the
main characters of the story, Holly and Gerry. They were young sweethearts and nobody
could envision them without each other. But everything’s change when a tragic event
happened to them. Gerry’s death devastates the whole life of Holly. Years past by until
Holly’s 30th birthday, she discovered bundle of letters which Gerry left before he died.
These makes a new life to Holly. Each inspiring letters marked with P.S. I love You. This
would not also be possible without the help of her friends and family. She finds herself as a
new Holly. Knowing that Gerry is now in heaven, she considered him as angel watching
over her.

The character of Holly is a young widow with some dormant energy waiting to burst
out. After Gerry’s death, she is impatient in most aspects of her life. A fiery, determined and
hot-headed person. In addition, she dedicates herself to something, she’s unlikely to let go.
But when she turned 30 years old and found the bundles of letter, everything’s change. She
sees life more beautiful and worth to living. She turns to laugh, sing, dance and being
braver than ever before. Knowing that Gerry is always there for her.

The symbols I observed is one, the letters. The letters represent as the substitute
when Gerry died. The letters help Holly to ease her pain and depression. Everytime she
receives the letter, she felt like she had another reason to live her life everyday and it gave
her a purpose to stay in this world.

The other one is the apartment. This represents the two-side characteristics of
Holly. Her good and bad sides. Good side because she had many memories with Gerry on
the said apartment. The other side, which is bad, after Gerry’s death, everything was left
into depression state of her mind.

This book was a mixture of emotions. It made me laugh, cry, angry and even sad. It
kills me every pages.

Meanwhile, the story teaches us to hold on in every circumstances. We do have

different coping mechanisms to overcome difficulties. And this makes us more strong and
independent after all the pains we experienced. After holding on, we should know how to
let go. This releases us in every pain we had. It is good to take time holding to something
but not too long. This makes us more depress and may lead even to think of death. It is not
bad to share and seek for help to others the daily battles we face. Always remember that no
man is an island. We need them. We need help. But it doesn’t mean after holding on is you
end up to let go. You must learn to love again. Not literally to love someone but to love the
life you have that worth to live. And begin another day knowing the pasts are our new
strengths.

Submitted by:

MARC VOLTAIRE F. DAQUIGAN