Rating: 5/5
Review:
Exceptionally good
I thought this was quite exceptionally good. It really doesn't sound alluring: Ivo, a
40-year-old man lies dying in a hospice while he looks back at all the mistakes
he's made in his life, but I thought it was readable, very involving –
genuinely gripping at times – and said a lot of important things very well.
There is a plot of sorts.
Interspersed with Ivo's present-day circumstances and deterioration we
get the story of his young friendships, the love of his life and how the two interacted
and broke each other. It sounds
horrendous, and in the wrong hands certainly could have been, but James Hannah
writes with such insight and honesty that I found it completely involving and I
was utterly gripped as things developed.
It is extremely well written, well paced and well structured. The love between Ivo and Mia is especially
beautifully evoked and seemed completely real to me.
Obviously, I have never been in Ivo's situation, but I have
been to the very end with two beloved family members who were, and Hannah seems
to me to have got that exactly right, too, as he is both unflinching and
compassionate in his depiction of Ivo's physical suffering and his struggles
with bitterness and whether reconciliation is desirable or can even be possible. There is also the beautifully and delicately
evoked kindness of Shiela, Ivo's nurse, and how overwhelmingly important that
is.
I cried long and shamelessly toward the end, for sorrow but
also at the greatness of humanity, friendship and kindness. It's an excellent book which deals with a
difficult subject superbly and movingly without ever slipping into
sentimentality, mawkishness or facile answers.
The subject matter may not make it sound like a good read, but it is -
it really is. Wholeheartedly recommended.
(I received an ARC from Netgalley.)
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