The End Of Your Life Book Club -Will Schwalbe (SPOILER ALERT!)

I've just finished it, and can I say it is awesome.
Yes, it is awesome.

Not only I relate about 95% of the content, it has a list of recommended books I can add up to my books-to-buy list. A story of the relationship between a son and his mother, what's not to love? Sis and I have always been suckers for family related books.

And while upstanding my own opinions on certain thoughts, I agree with the first thing Will Schwalbe had said on page 6, first Chapter ; Crossing to Safety which is to say quote unquote (in case of spoilers) that when you have terminal illness, there isn't likely a surprise ending. You can be fairly certain of what fate has in store.


It isn't like Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, where Celia and Marco drifts off between death and living -not quite dead, not quite alive.

It isn't like The Stand by Stephen King, where the characters I'd thought will survive till the end met an unexpected demise (read : Nick) , and the ones I hoped to die, survived till the end (read : Stu/Fran).

The death is predicted from the beginning, but the story is to tell how it progresses to that point. After all, everybody has a tale of a dying life.
Mary Ann and Will shared a love of books. As per my sister, Amelia, and I do. We talk of the books we read, and we share our passion for the life of the characters we lived. 

I'm familiar with a few of the books mentioned in it, for example Khalid Hosseini (The Kite Runner, And The Mountains Echoed), and familiar with a few of the movies made from the books mentioned (Christopher and His Kind). 
Though we have more fiction than biographies, I think the seriousness that books we own from authors like Laura Joh Rowland, Jodi Picoult, Mitch Albom, Frank McCourt, Cathy Glass etc etc balance it all. Plus, who says there aren't any seriousness in Stephen King, Emily McKay, Lia Habel, Rainbow Rowell, Amanda Hocking, Marcus Sedgwick, etc etc?

As a reader, the only thing I need to travel to a different world altogether is to open a book. Reading from another's perspective enhances your own. Everybody knows this.


What would it feel like, if anyone I know is going through as the characters in the book?
What would I say?
What would I do?
Self-awareness becomes super sensitive.
If I act like I'm dense on some issues, you have good reason to believe that I choose to be so.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Nightmare in White

"Toukan Koukan" ; Exchange of equal value

A Semblance of Balance