After the End by Clare Mackintosh

I asked Mike to pick up a copy of After the End on his last trip to London because it was getting a bunch of good press and I like my books to come from somewhere interesting if entirely possible.  In fact, I've finally started writing in the front of my books where I bought them so I can remember better.  And here's a free marketing tip from me to independent book stores out there:  why not make cool book plates of your bookstore and stick them in the inside cover?  Then it'd create like a cool badge of honor for people who go out their way not to buy from Amazon.

Anyway, I love bookplates (see my pinterest board on them!)

After the End is a desperately sad book.  Reading it made me very very sad and reminded me of a terrible time in my life and some of my worst fears coming true.  I asked myself many times, "Why am I reading this book?" before I skipped about 100 pages and finally read the last 20 or so.  It's about a loving couple who's child has brain cancer, and at the beginning is lying in a hospital bed, brain damaged, with a bit of cancer still in his brain, on a ventilator, unable to speak and barely move.  They disagree about the medical path they should take and go to court.  Then, this is about halfway through (SPOILER coming) the judge rules that the child shall receive no further care (beyond palliative, of course) and in another timeline, he rules the child shall receive additional care.  So, in one timeline, or reality, their son dies shortly after, and in another (alternating chapters), he lives an additional six years.  In both realities, the parents' marriage suffers greatly and their lives are forever altered by their devastating loss. Both parents and doctor question their decision. Following the two story lines allows the reader (and the author) to indulge in the fantasy of actually knowing the result of the other choice.  They are haunted by their choice, but at least in the book, the other choice's outcome is known.

You have to applaud Mackintosh for writing such an unflinching book.  She obviously set out to confront the horror of losing a child and that is precisely what she did.  In an "Author's Note", "This has been an incredibly difficult book to write, but one that has also brought me great joy" she writes. She also writes that she had to make a life and death decision for her son and I suspect that writing it was a cathartic experience for her. I'm glad she found joy in writing these parallel tales, but I honestly can't imagine many will find joy in reading it - although some people really love sad stories.  If so, this one is for you!

New England Vacation Reading

When I go on vacation, I like to read fiction from or about the area.  For our trip from Boston to Acadia National Park in Maine, I read:

North of Boston by Elisabeth Elo.  This is a mystery about a woman who is out lobstering with her friend when they're hit by a larger ship.  Her friend dies, and she surely would have if she didn't have the uncanny ability to survive in ungodly cold temps.  Truthfully I found the book a bit convoluted with what felt like over-the-top details, like the main character's mother was a famous perfumer and her step dad was like a Ukranian mobster or something, and her best friend is a beautiful heiress and an alcoholic.  I mean, maybe I don't understand the northeast that well, but I was like, why was this girl out lobstering at night?  Anyway, Elo wrapped it all up with a bow and I had fun reading it, so, who cares?

Run, Ann Patchett.  Run takes place mostly around Cambridge, Mass.  It begins, as her books often do, with a killer first chapter that reads like a beautiful, stand-alone story (that nevertheless perfectly sets the stage for the novel).  One snowy evening, a father and his sons become entangled with a woman and her daughter.  A tender look at family, inheritance (tangible and intangible), race and class, this is Peak Patchett.  I love her.

Vacationland, by John Hodgman.  Did you know Maine license plates read "vacationland"?  That might seem funny to some jackass from Chicago (guess who? Me!) until you see how very beautiful it is there, and apparently in summer quite overrun with weekenders - in late September it was overrun with pensioners.  Hodgman is from Brookline, Mass, but writes at length about Maine and its curmudgeonly  and antisocial denizens.  Although most of the book is Hodgman cracking wise about making cairns while getting high and how he accidentally got famous and kind of rich making Apple commercials, he wrote this book while continually acknowledging his own white male privilege, just honestly and forwardly.  That was pretty damn refreshing to read.  He ends with a hard look at how in a place like Maine, composed mostly of wealthy white people, you can pretty much ignore the existence of racism and its terrible effect on minorities in this country.  I think about that sometimes too, like, I could quit reading news about black people being killed by police and I would probably be a lot happier. Anyway, a substantial chapter by a white male comedian on the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement and how white people need to commit themselves improving our society.  Then he immediately writes how he online trolled a dummy online after making a similar commitment and felt like an ass.  Because life is really complicated.  Unexpectedly woke and thoughtful.

On Division, Goldie Goldbloom

My interview with the fascinating and wonderful Goldie Goldbloom is in Newcity!