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Memoir of a Good Death
*Longlisted for the 2012 Alberta Readers' Choice Award
This is a story of family, of death, and of the art of living. It is also the story of the ties that bind a mother to a daughter and the dynamics that govern their love. Shaped as a memoir, shared by Sarah Flett and her daughter Rhegan, the narrative begins with the death of Sarah's husband and builds in complexity with the untimely and sudden death of Rhegan.
As Rhegan speaks from beyond the grave, her life is revealed in unexpected ways to her mother. And as Rhegan reconstructs her past and her memories of the last six months of her life, their impact and energy become one with her mother's own remembering.
This is a story of family, of death, and of the art of living. It is also the story of the ties that bind a mother to a daughter and the dynamics that govern their love. Shaped as a memoir, shared by Sarah Flett and her daughter Rhegan, the narrative begins with the death of Sarah's husband and builds in complexity with the untimely and sudden death of Rhegan.
As Rhegan speaks from beyond the grave, her life is revealed in unexpected ways to her mother. And as Rhegan reconstructs her past and her memories of the last six months of her life, their impact and energy become one with her mother's own remembering.
- GenresFictionWomens Fiction
266 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2010
About the author
Anne Sorbie
7 books10 followersAnne Sorbie is Scottish Canadian writer.
Her fiction, poetry, essays and book reviews have been published by Inanna Publications, Thistledown Press, The University of Alberta Press, Frontenac House, and House of Blue Skies; in magazines and journals such as Alberta Views, Geist, and Other Voices; and online with Brick Books, CBC Canada Writes, Geist, and Wax Poetry and Art.
Her fiction, poetry, essays and book reviews have been published by Inanna Publications, Thistledown Press, The University of Alberta Press, Frontenac House, and House of Blue Skies; in magazines and journals such as Alberta Views, Geist, and Other Voices; and online with Brick Books, CBC Canada Writes, Geist, and Wax Poetry and Art.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 7, 2011
I started to read this book with alot of trepidation ... it seemed like such a heavy topic that I wasn't sure I wanted to venture into it. (I'm much more of a escape-into-another-world kind of reader). Death is a heavy subject at any point and having a story center on it seemed to be ... well.. just a big Debbie downer. But I was hooked quickly. Having the story start off being narrated by the voice of the dead character made me stick with it. It was intriquing and kept luring me onto the next chapter until you get pulled to the past and the mother's voice is added to the story.
So this is a story about dealing. Dealing with death. Dealing with your relationships past and present. Dealing with emotion. Dealing with healing. And learning how to restart fresh and carry on.
It follows the lives and thoughts of a mother and daughter and how their love mixes together. It follows how they learn to come to terms with the death of the patriarch of their family and start to trust the love they have for each other and forgive and accept their differences.
It's also a book about healing. Letting go and healing. Accepting and healing. Being open and healing. And that it's okay to do it differently because every one does, even in families. It's also about understanding that you can't always be in control while you're in the midst of it all, and that's okay too.
Beautifully written and very poignant, it's a book that will haunt me for awhile.
So this is a story about dealing. Dealing with death. Dealing with your relationships past and present. Dealing with emotion. Dealing with healing. And learning how to restart fresh and carry on.
It follows the lives and thoughts of a mother and daughter and how their love mixes together. It follows how they learn to come to terms with the death of the patriarch of their family and start to trust the love they have for each other and forgive and accept their differences.
It's also a book about healing. Letting go and healing. Accepting and healing. Being open and healing. And that it's okay to do it differently because every one does, even in families. It's also about understanding that you can't always be in control while you're in the midst of it all, and that's okay too.
Beautifully written and very poignant, it's a book that will haunt me for awhile.
January 12, 2013
Goodreads Description- This is a story of family, of death, and of the art of living. It is also the story of the ties that bind a mother to a daughter and the dynamics that govern their love. Shaped as a memoir, shared by Sarah Flett and her daughter Rhegan, the narrative begins with the death of Sarah's husband and builds in complexity with the untimely and sudden death of Rhegan.
Are life and death at their core intertwined? As Rhegan speaks from beyond the grave, her life is revealed in unexpected ways to her mother. And as Rhegan reconstructs her past and her memories of the last six months of her life, their impact and energy become one with her mother's own remembering. This unheralded reconnection forms the nexus of the novel. It becomes their shared memoir. Through it the reader is invited into the intricacies of grieving and the irreducible nature of mother-daughter love.
Sorbie's steady hand meshes the dual narrative perspectives using land and water imagery. Within this narrative frame, the balance that grieving and celebrating, and holding on and letting go require is carefully constructed. Rhegan's and Sarah's lives become meaningful because we share in their heartbreak and their joy. Their lives intertwine and together become the memoir of a good death.
This book was just ok for me. I will do a full review soon!
Are life and death at their core intertwined? As Rhegan speaks from beyond the grave, her life is revealed in unexpected ways to her mother. And as Rhegan reconstructs her past and her memories of the last six months of her life, their impact and energy become one with her mother's own remembering. This unheralded reconnection forms the nexus of the novel. It becomes their shared memoir. Through it the reader is invited into the intricacies of grieving and the irreducible nature of mother-daughter love.
Sorbie's steady hand meshes the dual narrative perspectives using land and water imagery. Within this narrative frame, the balance that grieving and celebrating, and holding on and letting go require is carefully constructed. Rhegan's and Sarah's lives become meaningful because we share in their heartbreak and their joy. Their lives intertwine and together become the memoir of a good death.
This book was just ok for me. I will do a full review soon!
April 21, 2012
A lovely, well-written story that gets you thinking about relationships, life and death. The descriptions were especially good. I could feel myself canoeing down the rushing Bow River.
February 11, 2012
If you decide to read Anne Sorbie 's Memoir of a Good Death and it starts a bit slow for you, don't give up and don't despair. That is exactly what happened to me with this book. It is the story of Rheegan, a women in her thirties who, along with her mother, Sarah, is trying to deal with the death of her father.
In the beginning, I had a hard time identifying with the main characters, especially that of Rheegan. My first impression of her was that she was going to be another one of those run-of-the mill self absorbed characters that you sometimes find in books on family dynamics. As the story progressed, though, and I got into the rhythm of the book, I became enthralled by the behaviors of both Rheegan, and Sarah. Soon I was greedily turning pages, wondering where the story was going to go, what strange behaviors the characters were going to exhibit next, and how those behaviors were going to impact both them and the people around them. By the middle of the book, I was wondering exactly how Rheegan was going to die (no spoiler, she tells us she is going to die in the first paragraph of the book). And then I got to the end, which smacked me right in the face. By the time I finished this book, I realized that this is no run-of-the-mill story of family dynamics and mother-daughter relationships. Rather it is a story of two women dealing with the aftermath of death, while trying desperately to reconcile their very different ways of handling the situation.
Rheegan and Sarah are not the only interesting characters in this book. The author has filled the book with people who are anything but ordinary. In some cases we get to spend quite a bit of time with them, in other cases, we are only afforded brief glimpses. Even these brief glimpses, though, are fascinating. There were quite a few of them that were important, but not integral to the story, but I wished I could get to know a bit more about them.
The plot of the book flowed well. One of the things I particularly liked was that it was not exactly straightforward, but tended to meander around a bit, like the river that both Rheegan and Sarah lived next to. The author's use of foreshadowing was good and her hooks certainly got me thinking and trying to guess at the end result. You see, even though we know up front that Rheegan will die, it is the uncertainty of the circumstances and timing of that death that kept me turning the pages.
If there was one thing, though, that kept me from giving this book 5 stars, it was the fact that the author made some plot hints that never panned out. This can be a good thing as in the use of a "red herring" in a mystery story, but in this case, there were some definite comments made that seemed at first to be important in some way, but that ended up going nowhere. One, in particular, was mentioned several times, but the dots were never connected. I found this just a bit confusing, and at the same time disappointing. I kept waiting for the big revelation as to the significance of the statement, only to have it never explained. At least not to my satisfaction.
All in all, though, I would class this book as a "hidden gem" as I don't think many people have found it yet. I am giving it 4 starts and would suggest it to those who like books on family dynamics by authors like Sue Miller, Anita Shreve, or Jodi Picoult.
In the beginning, I had a hard time identifying with the main characters, especially that of Rheegan. My first impression of her was that she was going to be another one of those run-of-the mill self absorbed characters that you sometimes find in books on family dynamics. As the story progressed, though, and I got into the rhythm of the book, I became enthralled by the behaviors of both Rheegan, and Sarah. Soon I was greedily turning pages, wondering where the story was going to go, what strange behaviors the characters were going to exhibit next, and how those behaviors were going to impact both them and the people around them. By the middle of the book, I was wondering exactly how Rheegan was going to die (no spoiler, she tells us she is going to die in the first paragraph of the book). And then I got to the end, which smacked me right in the face. By the time I finished this book, I realized that this is no run-of-the-mill story of family dynamics and mother-daughter relationships. Rather it is a story of two women dealing with the aftermath of death, while trying desperately to reconcile their very different ways of handling the situation.
Rheegan and Sarah are not the only interesting characters in this book. The author has filled the book with people who are anything but ordinary. In some cases we get to spend quite a bit of time with them, in other cases, we are only afforded brief glimpses. Even these brief glimpses, though, are fascinating. There were quite a few of them that were important, but not integral to the story, but I wished I could get to know a bit more about them.
The plot of the book flowed well. One of the things I particularly liked was that it was not exactly straightforward, but tended to meander around a bit, like the river that both Rheegan and Sarah lived next to. The author's use of foreshadowing was good and her hooks certainly got me thinking and trying to guess at the end result. You see, even though we know up front that Rheegan will die, it is the uncertainty of the circumstances and timing of that death that kept me turning the pages.
If there was one thing, though, that kept me from giving this book 5 stars, it was the fact that the author made some plot hints that never panned out. This can be a good thing as in the use of a "red herring" in a mystery story, but in this case, there were some definite comments made that seemed at first to be important in some way, but that ended up going nowhere. One, in particular, was mentioned several times, but the dots were never connected. I found this just a bit confusing, and at the same time disappointing. I kept waiting for the big revelation as to the significance of the statement, only to have it never explained. At least not to my satisfaction.
All in all, though, I would class this book as a "hidden gem" as I don't think many people have found it yet. I am giving it 4 starts and would suggest it to those who like books on family dynamics by authors like Sue Miller, Anita Shreve, or Jodi Picoult.
November 8, 2011
This is a creative novel, written as a type of memoir. Rhegan tells her story from "the other side". It is an emotional story of her bond with her mother, Sarah.
Sarah learns more about Rhegan after Rhegan's early passing. Throughout the story, as it unfolds, the memoir becomes two-fold. It becomes a memoir of a mother-daughter relationship.
We are reminded again that love does not die, that love surpasses death. Death can even help us to understand things we don't see or know during a person's life. With grief and understanding comes eventual healing.
Anne Sorbie writes a creative novel celebrating a life while grieving it. Heartbreak and happiness do indeed often intertwine. Life and death complete a circle, but we don't ever have to fully let go, because love goes on.
Sarah learns more about Rhegan after Rhegan's early passing. Throughout the story, as it unfolds, the memoir becomes two-fold. It becomes a memoir of a mother-daughter relationship.
We are reminded again that love does not die, that love surpasses death. Death can even help us to understand things we don't see or know during a person's life. With grief and understanding comes eventual healing.
Anne Sorbie writes a creative novel celebrating a life while grieving it. Heartbreak and happiness do indeed often intertwine. Life and death complete a circle, but we don't ever have to fully let go, because love goes on.
August 9, 2011
Memoir of a Good Death was only just an o.k. book for me. It is the story of a woman who goes through life searching for something that she does not seem to be able to find. She marries several men and seems to have an interesting relationship with her parents, calling both of them by their first names and having somewhat of a distance with her Mother. The story for me went on for a little too long with too much detail about canoeing and the ending is very sad. There are those that may find this book interesting but for me it just left me kind of glad it was over.
August 4, 2011
I agree with other reviewers who stated that this book was wandered into with trepidation due to the heaviness of the topic. I am happy I wandered in though. This book was fantastic, yet thought provoking. One which will keep the reader thinking after the book is done with.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews