50 - The Descendents, by Kaui Hart Hemmings, 283 pages, Random House, 2011
WHY I PICKED IT: Picked it up in Powell's Books in Portland
ELAPSED TIME: 2days
RATING: Very Good
This is a melancholic story of a man who is trying to connect with his daughters, while saying goodbye to his wife (who is being taken off the ventilators, as directed by her living will).
The drama of the story is poignant and quite real. The experience of their interaction is phenomenally well constructed:
- That someone would "forget" that their wife and mother is slowly dying in a hospital bed, and sharing a laugh for a moment is a completely believable (especially when you consider the book starts more than 2 weeks into the Joanie's coma).
- That the death of his wife is the awakening of Matthew... that he now understands that he is responsible for his family, and for their future.
I strongly recommend this book.
This blog is a simple review of every book that I read... For all books I’ll tell you why I picked it, how long it took me to read it, and give it a rating (burn it, not good, meh, good, very good, and required reading). I ask (encourage?) all readers of my blog to post their thoughts of any of the books in my comments :). Thanks!
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