Beatle Meets Destiny (review)

When a boy named John Lennon meets a girl named Destiny McCartney, you can bet that fate has played a role; unfortunately, fate doesn't always sort out complications for star-crossed lovers. Beatle, as John is commonly known, already has a girlfriend who is also his sister's best friend, so he figures that he needs to end his brief encounter with Destiny before, or more precisely shortly after, things get romantic in order to keep the general peace. But life is even more complicated for the hapless Beatle: with degrees of separation that would flummox Kevin Bacon, it turns out that Beatle's sister is secretly seeing their English teacher, who happens to be Destiny's brother. This turns into funny, funny stuff, as Beatle tries to keep everything sorted and Destiny's friends add a stalker to the general confusion by answering an unusual personal ad. The rich situational humor is augmented by witty dialogue and quirky side plots and secondary characters, among them sets of twins sharing odd stories throughout the book as part of a documentary that ultimately serves as a catalyst to reunite Beatle and Destiny after things go predictably wrong. This is the kind of romantic comedy of errors that would make for a great date movie, but the blithe, wise-cracking narration plays such a strong role in setting a light, engaging tone that it really is better in print—too bad couples can't settle down Saturday night with a date book.