Save as Draft - Book Review

Penned by former Atlantan Cavanaugh Lee, Save as Draft is an epistolary novel based on Lee’s relationship with her former fiancé and with the rebound guy she met online. Most uniquely, the book is written entirely through social media: emails, texts, online dating profiles, and Blackberry, Facebook and Twitter messages.

Readers of Save as Draft are sure to feel voyeuristic as they read personal messages written between the main character, Izabell, and her boyfriend-turned-fiancé, Peter; messages exchanged between Izabell and Marty, the man she meets via online dating; and messages sent and received by Izabell’s and Peter’s family members and by Izabell’s friends.

Although we’re able to unobtrusively peer into Izabell’s life, the way the novel is written leaves readers with a sense that something is missing, a sense of being left out. After all, we’re reading the messages after the fact. Keeping readers at a distance proves Lee’s point: while today’s communication modes are convenient and fun, they are also isolating, and relationships are often hindered by digital miscommunication.

Because the novel is based on true events, I found myself wondering which messages were copied directly from Lee’s save as draft folder and which were fictionalized. Lee does an excellent job of writing from the various characters’ perspectives, namely Peter’s. Did her real-life former fiancé keep dozens of unsent messages as she did? We don’t know; but we can easily believe his character (Peter) did because Lee created him so expertly.

The way social media has transformed communication makes Save as Draft’s message so topical. Too often we find ourselves and others hiding behind emails, texts and messages, editing our words and feelings or deleting them altogether. The book makes one consider what would happen if no words went unsaid (unsent) and no feelings left unrevealed.

Click here to read my interview with Cavanaugh Lee.