hebaabbas

During the first half of the book, I found the stories and characters interesting enough to keep reading, but felt the general tone of the book was kind of depressing. It deals a lot with loss, both physical and mental, disenchantment, suicide, and so forth, which for someone in their midlife who has suffered losses, makes for rather grim reading. In the second half, it did come together for me. I felt I was able to get to know and understand Olive a little better. Inside her coarse, controlling, protective person, there were glimpses of kindness, desire to serve, need to be loved and fear of letting go enough to allow that. I recognized some of those traits in myself as well, and that I too, as Olive and other characters in the book, can be quick to judge, be it a book, person or situation....it's good to be open to discovering the truths about people and life...while it is not all pretty, warm or predictable, there are times of great clarity, beauty and deep human connections that can nourish us if we are alert enough to notice them and brave enough to open ourselves up to them. The writing itself, was descriptive and emotive and I enjoyed her use of similes with unordinary objects to express feelings familiar to many of us (i.e. “her stomach had started to feel like a wet balloon, with its insides stuck together” [p. 234], or feeling overcome by a sadness that feels like “being squeezed so hard she felt like a package of vacuum packed coffee…” [p. 252]). I loved the interview at the end as well - tied it all up nicely for me. It’s definitely a book to digest for a couple days before passing judgment.

2022-11-14 18:48