Reading elsewhere. Cyril squires the necessary medica@on which is stored, in a liJle black box, at the back of the refrigerator. But things do not quite go as they planned but we find this out at the end of chapter 3 on page 71. There are 200 pages to go. In chapter 4, Cyril and Kay reappear and go through a different process of dying or not. And the novel proceeds through a series of “what ifs”. Vol 16 … September 15th so 2017 28 April December 7th, 2017 Vol 48 27th 2018
The idea of a suicide pact provides Shriver with the opportunity to explore different ideas of life and death, or at least the end of life. In one chapter Kay and Cyril’s rather unpleasant children consign them to a dreadful old-age facility, Close of Day CoJages, whose sadis@c staff compel the couple, aKer 60 years of marriage, to sleep in separate rooms. In another chapter the couple are cryogenically preserved, and Shriver imagines what it might be like to be reanimated in a future world that is radically different to the one you leK. In all the scenarios both Kay and Cyril die, but not always when they are 80. Both Kay and Cyril are likeable enough though their three children are truly dreadful. I found myself being glad that I have rela@vely normal children. At least, I think I do. Perhaps they would consign me to a ghastly aged-care facility given half a chance. But the novel is not really a novel about death … it’s a novel about a rela@onship. The fact that the rela@onship is a marriage is by the by. Shriver is exploring, and encourages her reader to consider, what it means to be in an in@mate rela@onship with one person for 60 years. In that context it is interes@ng to think about the place of the individual in that rela@onship. In the case of Kay and Cyril the rela@onship is cri@cal, but it never seems to remove the power of the individual. When it comes down to it, this is a novel about life and not about death. It’s a good book. It’s designed to make its reader think. I found it, I have to say, in Moruya Books and it may be that there are copies s@ll there. Janice posted on Facebook last week that she is “running a @ght ship behind closed doors for anyone that needs to squirrel some more reading away”. She is taking orders Monday — Friday, 0900 — 1200 by phone, email or SMS. You can prepay and collect, or she can mail your books to you. Support a local business: buy a book. Buy two. In fact, definitely buy two. Note on Trump: The two books I read were Micheal Wolff’s Landslaide and I alone can fix it by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker. The Wolff book is the third in a trilogy on the Trump years and follows Fire and fury (2018) and Siege (2019). I found it hard to read as it seemed be all over the place - possibly as a result of the event it tries to record. There are too many characters and it’s too easy to forget who’s who. I think he wrote it in a hurry. The Leaning and Rucker book, on the other hand, is a masterpiece. It’s not short at 570 or so pages (compared to Wolff’s 300) but it’s thoroughly readable. It leaves you open-mouthed at the an@cs of some of these people and makes you wonder who actually ran the US in the last year of the Trump presidency. And it makes it clear that the whole elec@on fraud thing was just made up. I think democracy in the US had a preJy close call. Come to think of it, perhaps it s@ll does. beagle weekly : Vol 222 August 27th 2021
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