Getting you’re heart broken hurts. But getting it broken twice… hurts even more.
In Tillie Cole’s “A Thousand Boy Kisses,” Poppy and Rune meet when they are just five years old. They were inseparable and would do absolutely everything together.
Rune was there for Poppy when her grandmother died. Her grandmother had given her a task before she died – a thousand boy kisses. That way she could recall all the moments when her heart burst and be able to tell her grandchildren about them all, just like her grandmother.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t going to happen.
Rune is from Norway. His father got stationed in Georgia and that’s when he met Poppy. His father gets stationed back in Norway and he is forced to go with him. He is gone for two years.
During this time, Poppy becomes sick and is gone getting treatment, so when Rune comes back to Georgia, she also had only been back for a couple weeks.
Poppy decides to spare him the heart break but inevitably that doesn’t work. They are just simply meant to be. Eventually Rune gets it out of Poppy that she is dying and he is absolutely devastated.
But Rune comes to his senses and realizes that there is nothing to do but to make sure that Poppy gets her thousand boy kisses. Just like he planned all those years ago.
Rune takes Poppy to New York toward the end of the book to fulfill one of her biggest dreams that she wasn’t going to be able to obtain, since she was dying.
Soon after the trip, Poppy becomes sick. Everyone thinks this is when Poppy is going to go, but not everyone knows the promises between her and Rune.
Categories: Art & Life, Book Reviews
