IN THE MIDDLE OF ALL THIS.

by Fred G. Leebron

Martin Kreutzel and his seriously ill sister, Elizabeth, are as close as grown siblings can be - they share a steadfast bond. However, she lives on the outskirts of London, and he lives far away in a small Pennsylvania town where he and his wife teach at the local college and are raising their two kids in a neighborhood that's safe but uninspiring. Gradually Elizabeth's cancer worsens, and Martin, who hates the thought of life without her, finds it hard to focus on his daily routine at work and at home. When Elizabeth's husband, Richard, disappears and one of Martin's students hangs herself, Martin struggles between helping his sister and being a good husband, father, and professor. After he travels to London to join his sister, the situation sprawls into something far more complex and mysterious than Martin ever could have expected.

Paperback

First published August 21, 2002

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

My journey to this book was interesting! A Wisconsin librarian posted a reference question where a patron had a description of a book and wanted to know what the book was. She eventually discovered that it was this book. I borrowed it through WISCAT. The relationship between Martin (protagonist) and Elizabeth (his sister who is fighting cancer) is very close. However, they live on two different continents. Martin has to confront the fact that Elizabeth is slipping away. Meanwhile, he is living his ordinary life fraught with stresses. The concluding paragraph holds a lot: "She was gone, oh god she was gone. These had been years that death was everywhere, that he woke every morning and could not escape it, that he kept feeling he was missing everybody, that he had to keep living, that death descended, that it hadn't yet arrived. These were years that death was everywhere. He had never wanted them to end." I liked the plot device of "brokenness". The garage door broken in America, the glass broken in the window in London.