In the Middle of All This

by Fred G. Leebron

Leebron’s compelling third novel brings us into the world of domestic unease as two couples and their joined families wrestle with empathy’s limitations in the uncompromising teeth of mortality.

264 pages, 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.