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Say Say Say
A beautiful, bracingly honest debut novel about the triangle formed between a young woman and the couple whose life she enters one transformative year: a story about love and compassion, the fluidity of desire, and the myriad ways of devotion.
Ella is nearing thirty, and not yet living the life she imagined. Her artistic ambitions as a student in Minnesota have given way to an unintended career in caregiving. One spring, Bryn--a retired carpenter--hires her to help him care for Jill, his wife of many years. A car accident caused a brain injury that has left Jill verbally diminished; she moves about the house like a ghost of her former self, often able to utter, like an incantation, only the words that comprise this novel's title.
As Ella is drawn ever deeper into the couple's household, her presence unwanted but wholly necessary, she is profoundly moved by the tenderness Bryn shows toward the wife he still fiercely loves. Ella is startled by the yearning this awakens in her, one that complicates her feelings for her girlfriend, Alix, and causes her to look at relationships of all kinds--between partners, between employer and employee, and above all between men and women--in new ways.
Tightly woven, humane and insightful, tracing unflinchingly the most intimate reaches of a young woman's heart and mind, Say Say Say is a riveting story about what it means to love, in a world where time is always running out.
Ella is nearing thirty, and not yet living the life she imagined. Her artistic ambitions as a student in Minnesota have given way to an unintended career in caregiving. One spring, Bryn--a retired carpenter--hires her to help him care for Jill, his wife of many years. A car accident caused a brain injury that has left Jill verbally diminished; she moves about the house like a ghost of her former self, often able to utter, like an incantation, only the words that comprise this novel's title.
As Ella is drawn ever deeper into the couple's household, her presence unwanted but wholly necessary, she is profoundly moved by the tenderness Bryn shows toward the wife he still fiercely loves. Ella is startled by the yearning this awakens in her, one that complicates her feelings for her girlfriend, Alix, and causes her to look at relationships of all kinds--between partners, between employer and employee, and above all between men and women--in new ways.
Tightly woven, humane and insightful, tracing unflinchingly the most intimate reaches of a young woman's heart and mind, Say Say Say is a riveting story about what it means to love, in a world where time is always running out.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published July 9, 2019
96 people are currently reading
4801 people want to read
About the author
Lila Savage
1 book55 followersLila Savage is originally from Minneapolis. Prior to writing fiction, she spent nearly a decade working as a caregiver. Her work has appeared in The Threepenny Review. She is the recipient of a Wallace Stegner fellowship and graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 2018. She lives in San Francisco.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 285 reviews
February 7, 2023
This short novel has a big impact. Although there was no real plot I still devoured this novel. While reading I appreciated Ella’s honesty with herself and her almost constant reflections were tender.
At times I struggled with the writing and language. I found myself having to reread sentences and paragraphs to really concentrate on what the author was trying to say.
At times I struggled with the writing and language. I found myself having to reread sentences and paragraphs to really concentrate on what the author was trying to say.
December 19, 2019
Ella works as a companion for women in failing health, helping them with basic needs and alleviating family members who are also shouldering the load. The majority of the novel centers around her work with Jill, the wife of Bryn, who had mental damage in a car accident. Their relationship and her experience help her reevaluate the trajectory of her life, her art, and her relationship with her girlfriend Alix.
I feel like most of the blurbs set up an expectation for something this novel is not - it's not like she has a ménage à trois - and the husband is so exhausted (physically and mentally) that he's not even close to seduction. It's more about the intimacy that evolves when you are in the grossness of daily life with another person, like if you were cleaning up baby vomit or puppy pee. The author refers to it as "pink labor" - the work that so often falls to women, whether or not they are paid.
And then the Kirkus reviewer had the nerve to call the book tedious. I guess that's true, in the way David Foster Wallace's The Pale King is tedious because it's about a man and his boring job. Many of us have jobs that we take, that pay the bills, that are hard or emotionally draining and not all that interesting. I thought the author brought us into that experience with Ella very effectively. So what if it's tedious, that's life. She has a personal trajectory and emotional growth, so I was satisfied. Apart from that, the author has ten years of experience as a caregiver, and the daily realities feel very true to life.
I feel like most of the blurbs set up an expectation for something this novel is not - it's not like she has a ménage à trois - and the husband is so exhausted (physically and mentally) that he's not even close to seduction. It's more about the intimacy that evolves when you are in the grossness of daily life with another person, like if you were cleaning up baby vomit or puppy pee. The author refers to it as "pink labor" - the work that so often falls to women, whether or not they are paid.
And then the Kirkus reviewer had the nerve to call the book tedious. I guess that's true, in the way David Foster Wallace's The Pale King is tedious because it's about a man and his boring job. Many of us have jobs that we take, that pay the bills, that are hard or emotionally draining and not all that interesting. I thought the author brought us into that experience with Ella very effectively. So what if it's tedious, that's life. She has a personal trajectory and emotional growth, so I was satisfied. Apart from that, the author has ten years of experience as a caregiver, and the daily realities feel very true to life.
June 26, 2020
I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher (Knopf Publishing Group).
I was very excited to read this book because the prose is compared to Sally Rooney (who I love) but it didn’t live up to my expectations.
The main issue I had was that the prose is incredibly wordy. Usually I don’t take issue with that, but this novel went overboard with it. A lot of the wording would end up being awkward and hard to read.
For example, there was one part that ended up being (unintentionally) casually racist. When talking about a high school friend, the main character states, “Dai had spoken perfect unaccented English, but Ella had known that his family still spoke Vietnamese at home…Ella felt him watching her absorb the foreignness of his house, the unfamiliar food smells…” (pg 118). This could have been worded differently so that it could have avoided using the perpetual foreigner Asian stereotype. I get that she was trying to paint a picture of how different his house was, but there’s a way to say that without falling back on stereotypes.
This book wasn’t all bad. I did find that it explored the life of a caregiver in a very interesting and thought provoking way. It was very intimate.
Also, every once in a while, the wordiness would pay off, and something profound would be said. One line that stuck with me was, “She believed if she looked at it squarely, her own shoulder would throb unbearably, that his suffering might be contagious, that there might not be any cure, that she would leave his house, return to her ordinary life, and suddenly find she could no longer lift the knowledge that Alix would one day die, that Ella would, too, her shoulder would strain against this once-manageable dread, mirroring the weeping of Bryn’s wound” (pg 89).
Overall, this book had some good parts, but ultimately just didn’t resonate enough with me.
I was very excited to read this book because the prose is compared to Sally Rooney (who I love) but it didn’t live up to my expectations.
The main issue I had was that the prose is incredibly wordy. Usually I don’t take issue with that, but this novel went overboard with it. A lot of the wording would end up being awkward and hard to read.
For example, there was one part that ended up being (unintentionally) casually racist. When talking about a high school friend, the main character states, “Dai had spoken perfect unaccented English, but Ella had known that his family still spoke Vietnamese at home…Ella felt him watching her absorb the foreignness of his house, the unfamiliar food smells…” (pg 118). This could have been worded differently so that it could have avoided using the perpetual foreigner Asian stereotype. I get that she was trying to paint a picture of how different his house was, but there’s a way to say that without falling back on stereotypes.
This book wasn’t all bad. I did find that it explored the life of a caregiver in a very interesting and thought provoking way. It was very intimate.
Also, every once in a while, the wordiness would pay off, and something profound would be said. One line that stuck with me was, “She believed if she looked at it squarely, her own shoulder would throb unbearably, that his suffering might be contagious, that there might not be any cure, that she would leave his house, return to her ordinary life, and suddenly find she could no longer lift the knowledge that Alix would one day die, that Ella would, too, her shoulder would strain against this once-manageable dread, mirroring the weeping of Bryn’s wound” (pg 89).
Overall, this book had some good parts, but ultimately just didn’t resonate enough with me.
November 9, 2019
Say, Say, Say is a huge and consequential story that is told in a very small space. The particulars contain multitudes. I was overwhelmed by the way this slender novel completely and truthfully honors some of the most difficult relationships in our human experience. A core relationship portrayed here is between a loving husband and a wife who suffers from brain damage and no longer recognizes him. Another relationship--so common in our aging culture, and yet almost never the subject of our fiction-- is the relationship between paid caregiver and the disabled woman she cares for--the novel portrays so humanely and so completely the way a caregiver is expected to honestly care for the person in their charge...but not to care too much, because the caregiver can never forget, after all, that she's the hired help.
I'm respectful of the confidence Lila Savage exhibits here, to believe in her story, and to tell it full, and to trust that her small canvas can tell such a big, true story about the human condition.
Another aspect of the novel that I admire very much is the amount of interior monologue that Savage permits herself to write here. There are pages and pages of the caregiver's interior struggles, beautifully rendered. A caring person, but young and unsure of her role, she tries to honor the woman she has been hired to keep clean and safe, and she also tries to respect and lend support to the woman's husband, even as she is constantly worrying about whether she is overstepping her role.
This is a lovely story.
I'm respectful of the confidence Lila Savage exhibits here, to believe in her story, and to tell it full, and to trust that her small canvas can tell such a big, true story about the human condition.
Another aspect of the novel that I admire very much is the amount of interior monologue that Savage permits herself to write here. There are pages and pages of the caregiver's interior struggles, beautifully rendered. A caring person, but young and unsure of her role, she tries to honor the woman she has been hired to keep clean and safe, and she also tries to respect and lend support to the woman's husband, even as she is constantly worrying about whether she is overstepping her role.
This is a lovely story.
May 30, 2019
A beautifully written story on empathy and compassion, Say Say Say follows Ella, a home caregiver hired to care for Jill, a woman in steady decline from brain damage after a tragic car accident years before.
Ella's life is not what she expected it to be: she lost her faith in God, dropped out of graduate school, and fell into a career of caregiving.
She finds herself on the edge of constant tragedy, watching people succumb to the inevitable, but maintains a polite distance from the families she is hired to help.
"She drew people out with the skill of a reporter, the difference being that she wasn't trying to get any particular dirt. Instead, she was feeling her way toward the stories that most wanted to be told, and when people allowed themselves to sink into the telling, it was with pleasure, and relief, and almost a feeling of moral affirmation." *
As Ella nears thirty, she is reflecting on her life decisions when she's hired by Bryn to care for his wife Jill. Jill suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident and can no longer communicate effectively. She wanders her home at all hours and only utters short words or phrases, repeats random tasks like turning faucets on, and fights efforts made to change her clothes, bathe, or brush her hair and teeth.
"It was so strange, how the end could precede death by years, by decades." *
Ella is touched by Bryn's devotion to his wife. She witnesses the tenderness and patience he has with Jill though she's a ghost of her former self.
In Ella's short time with the couple she feels she becomes part of the family, experiencing the heartache and frustrations of tragedy with them and yet still holding them at arm's length. All the while, she's examining relationships-- both personal and professional, romantic and familial.
The experience changes Ella in unexpected ways as she realizes how profound human connection is.
"I don't want to be the sort of person who does what's safe. I want to do what's kind." *
Say Say Say is a short novel (under 200 pages) that manages to be insightful, reflective, and unflinchingly honest and it gave me all the feelings! I was captivated by Ella's experience, honesty and growth.
This is a lovely piece of literary fiction for readers who appreciate a candid look at human connection.
Thanks to Knopf and the Penguin First to Read program for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Say Say Say is scheduled for release on July 9, 2019.
*Quotes included are from a digital advanced reader's copy and are subject to change upon final publication.
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
Ella's life is not what she expected it to be: she lost her faith in God, dropped out of graduate school, and fell into a career of caregiving.
She finds herself on the edge of constant tragedy, watching people succumb to the inevitable, but maintains a polite distance from the families she is hired to help.
"She drew people out with the skill of a reporter, the difference being that she wasn't trying to get any particular dirt. Instead, she was feeling her way toward the stories that most wanted to be told, and when people allowed themselves to sink into the telling, it was with pleasure, and relief, and almost a feeling of moral affirmation." *
As Ella nears thirty, she is reflecting on her life decisions when she's hired by Bryn to care for his wife Jill. Jill suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident and can no longer communicate effectively. She wanders her home at all hours and only utters short words or phrases, repeats random tasks like turning faucets on, and fights efforts made to change her clothes, bathe, or brush her hair and teeth.
"It was so strange, how the end could precede death by years, by decades." *
Ella is touched by Bryn's devotion to his wife. She witnesses the tenderness and patience he has with Jill though she's a ghost of her former self.
In Ella's short time with the couple she feels she becomes part of the family, experiencing the heartache and frustrations of tragedy with them and yet still holding them at arm's length. All the while, she's examining relationships-- both personal and professional, romantic and familial.
The experience changes Ella in unexpected ways as she realizes how profound human connection is.
"I don't want to be the sort of person who does what's safe. I want to do what's kind." *
Say Say Say is a short novel (under 200 pages) that manages to be insightful, reflective, and unflinchingly honest and it gave me all the feelings! I was captivated by Ella's experience, honesty and growth.
This is a lovely piece of literary fiction for readers who appreciate a candid look at human connection.
Thanks to Knopf and the Penguin First to Read program for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Say Say Say is scheduled for release on July 9, 2019.
*Quotes included are from a digital advanced reader's copy and are subject to change upon final publication.
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
September 5, 2019
I almost gave up right from the start when reading about Jill’s brain injury. Having worked with people with brain impairments my entire career, focusing on Behavioral problems, I was dreading what was come. Ella was annoying, always analyzing herself her patient and her patients husband and her feelings for all three. The mention of an Alzheimer’s day program almost made me laugh as that is not what Jill had and her deficits were too far advanced. I was waiting for Ella to do something meaningful with Jill, not just battle her to change her clothes twice a week. This is a problem with some home health workers, the lack of ability to assessment likes, abilities and adapt, and engage for meaningful activities. Ella’s obsession with the husband clouded her true role. Not a bathroom cleaner but someone to interact and engage her patient. In addition the book went nowhere and Ella’s girlfriend added nothing to the tale.
May 4, 2019
A tender, generous sliver of compassion about the difficulties in caring for ourselves and for others.
Ella is a home care worker who floats between other people's tragedies, hired to join a family just long enough to witness her clients' decline. Ella has a girlfriend but there’s an immediate attraction between her and a new client's husband.
While that fraught relationship is the center of this novel, the real excitement here is the language, which recasts the steady and familiar (our bodies, our hopes) as quivering ephemera. Seriously, read the first page and you’ll feel sad about jellybeans. Stick with it and you'll find tiny joys hidden in the worst circumstances.
An exquisite, heartbreaking novel that dwells in the quiet moments when people know they are falling short of their best selves.
Ella is a home care worker who floats between other people's tragedies, hired to join a family just long enough to witness her clients' decline. Ella has a girlfriend but there’s an immediate attraction between her and a new client's husband.
While that fraught relationship is the center of this novel, the real excitement here is the language, which recasts the steady and familiar (our bodies, our hopes) as quivering ephemera. Seriously, read the first page and you’ll feel sad about jellybeans. Stick with it and you'll find tiny joys hidden in the worst circumstances.
An exquisite, heartbreaking novel that dwells in the quiet moments when people know they are falling short of their best selves.
January 29, 2020
I love books like Say Say Say. Short, interior novels that dig deep into thoughts, feelings, and motivations. In this case, the main character is a lesbian who is hired as a caretaker for someone with significant brain injury. It is told chronologically from her perspective as she grapples with her relationships with the husband and the injured wife. A lot about empathy, love, and grief, but also about religion and responsibility. Mostly about sorting through situations to be clear. I remained very interested and moved throughout the 161 pages.
November 16, 2019
This beautiful little slip of a novel delves into the nature of caring and kindness and I loved it. Don’t come for plot as there is none, come for carefully observed passages about what tenderness, love and compassion can look like. Savage’s prose is crystalline and sharp. Her eye is well trained and her details laden with depth.
July 8, 2024
(Reread July 2024: I was going to write another review but this one already captures everything I was going to say!)
This was nearly exactly what I'm looking for in fiction at the moment. Calm, quiet, and perceptive. No big conflicts, no larger-than-life characters. It reminds me of Sawako Ariyoshi's The Twilight Years. But where that novel opted for heavy-handed morality and elaborate descriptions of the grosser elements of caring for the infirm, Say Say Say uses a lighter, more personal touch. I also like stories where queer people discover the things they appreciate about cis het masculinity, something kinda wholesome about that. And stories set in the Midwest!
I've got some hangups, but I'd love to see more from this author.
A self-conscious resistance to keeping the story in the moment definitely kept me from totally loving this. It read to me like an MFA novel (like, striving for technical perfection, fixated on the flow and construction of language in a really specific way that I've seen over and over from authors out of Iowa, which I'd argue distracts from the more important building blocks of a novel) and, lo and behold, it IS an MFA novel.
I feel like the perspective is a bit too distant--or maybe too close-up? In any case, the result is never feeling totally present in the narrative. Like we're floating from one lightly sketched memory to the next, spending a lot more time in Ella's head than in her surroundings. I would have liked more descriptions of the normal, on-the-ground interactions between our characters, which would have engrossed me better in its treatment of mundane, everyday life and made the thematic arc hit harder. Ella felt complex and dynamic since we see things mostly from her limited third person perspective, but I have about as good an impression of Alex and Bryn as I would by watching them from across a cafe. Which is a shame because I really enjoyed what I saw of those characters!
This was nearly exactly what I'm looking for in fiction at the moment. Calm, quiet, and perceptive. No big conflicts, no larger-than-life characters. It reminds me of Sawako Ariyoshi's The Twilight Years. But where that novel opted for heavy-handed morality and elaborate descriptions of the grosser elements of caring for the infirm, Say Say Say uses a lighter, more personal touch. I also like stories where queer people discover the things they appreciate about cis het masculinity, something kinda wholesome about that. And stories set in the Midwest!
I've got some hangups, but I'd love to see more from this author.
A self-conscious resistance to keeping the story in the moment definitely kept me from totally loving this. It read to me like an MFA novel (like, striving for technical perfection, fixated on the flow and construction of language in a really specific way that I've seen over and over from authors out of Iowa, which I'd argue distracts from the more important building blocks of a novel) and, lo and behold, it IS an MFA novel.
I feel like the perspective is a bit too distant--or maybe too close-up? In any case, the result is never feeling totally present in the narrative. Like we're floating from one lightly sketched memory to the next, spending a lot more time in Ella's head than in her surroundings. I would have liked more descriptions of the normal, on-the-ground interactions between our characters, which would have engrossed me better in its treatment of mundane, everyday life and made the thematic arc hit harder. Ella felt complex and dynamic since we see things mostly from her limited third person perspective, but I have about as good an impression of Alex and Bryn as I would by watching them from across a cafe. Which is a shame because I really enjoyed what I saw of those characters!
August 19, 2020
3.5 stars, rounded down.
I received Say, Say, Say in a feminist gift box that my mum surprised me with at the start of lockdown along with a load of other goodies. It got buried under a sea of textbooks I had brought home from work and I only found it again during the summer holidays.
Ella is a caregiver for the elderly and those with complex needs who lives with her girlfriend, Alix. Ella starts to work for Bryn, looking after his wife, Jill, who suffered a brain injury many years before and whose condition has now deteriorated to such an extent that the family needs help with a view of moving Jill into a nursing home. Whilst working for the family, Ella starts to question her life choices, her sexuality and her relationship.
Say, Say, Say is not my normal choice of book. It isn’t a fast-paced book and it doesn’t really have a story that leads anywhere. Really, it is like a study of how working closely with a family can impact you, and for that reason it is a raw and emotional story. I loved Ella’s character and the way Savage crafts her emotions and thoughts was skilful and powerful. I enjoyed watching Ella develop and find her peace.
I received Say, Say, Say in a feminist gift box that my mum surprised me with at the start of lockdown along with a load of other goodies. It got buried under a sea of textbooks I had brought home from work and I only found it again during the summer holidays.
Ella is a caregiver for the elderly and those with complex needs who lives with her girlfriend, Alix. Ella starts to work for Bryn, looking after his wife, Jill, who suffered a brain injury many years before and whose condition has now deteriorated to such an extent that the family needs help with a view of moving Jill into a nursing home. Whilst working for the family, Ella starts to question her life choices, her sexuality and her relationship.
Say, Say, Say is not my normal choice of book. It isn’t a fast-paced book and it doesn’t really have a story that leads anywhere. Really, it is like a study of how working closely with a family can impact you, and for that reason it is a raw and emotional story. I loved Ella’s character and the way Savage crafts her emotions and thoughts was skilful and powerful. I enjoyed watching Ella develop and find her peace.
Read
July 8, 2019I gave it 65 pages and I had to put it down. I may give it another try at a later date, but for now it’s a DNF.
August 5, 2019
4.5 stars
#partner | @aaknopf - Say Say Say by Lila Savage is a short little book wrought in lyricism and heartbreak. It follows Ella, who works as a caregiver, as she becomes ever more implicated in the lives of her new patient Jill and her husband Bryn, drawn together over Jill’s needs as she deals with a brain injury because of a car accident. It felt a lot longer than its 160 pages but in a good way - so much was packed into this character-driven novel, but I wouldn’t recommend if you need action as it’s mostly introspective thought, which I loved!
.
Before I even hit page 10 it actually had me feeling a bit choked up, as it really makes you stop to consider the care and patience it takes to do the job Ella does - entrusted to look after people whose selves are slipping away from them day by day, to help them get through their days with a little dignity, some degree of comfort and as little suffering as possible. But with diseases like dementia, this can be the hardest thing in the world as everything and everyone around the patient seems like a threat. Savage perfectly captures the roles between patient and carer, you can sense her own experiences coming through.
.
Others might find Savage’s prose a little purple at times, but I am a sucker for a flowery passage and found the juxtaposition between the rich writing and the ache of someone once independent becoming wholly reliant on someone else, a near stranger, for their most basic needs absolutely beautiful. It was devastating to watch Jill’s decline, and its impact on those around her as a once vibrant woman’s mind and body deteriorates and degrades in a fruitless war against time.
.
This book also offers up a meticulous and often uncomfortable examination of love, and what it means to love and be loved. Ella’s daily interactions with Jill and Bryn make her ponder on her relationship with her girlfriend, and although the ending took a direction I wasn’t expecting and I might not agree with all of Ella’s decisions, I still loved this book in all its quiet melancholy and reflection, set in motion by one woman’s unstoppable regression back into childhood.
#partner | @aaknopf - Say Say Say by Lila Savage is a short little book wrought in lyricism and heartbreak. It follows Ella, who works as a caregiver, as she becomes ever more implicated in the lives of her new patient Jill and her husband Bryn, drawn together over Jill’s needs as she deals with a brain injury because of a car accident. It felt a lot longer than its 160 pages but in a good way - so much was packed into this character-driven novel, but I wouldn’t recommend if you need action as it’s mostly introspective thought, which I loved!
.
Before I even hit page 10 it actually had me feeling a bit choked up, as it really makes you stop to consider the care and patience it takes to do the job Ella does - entrusted to look after people whose selves are slipping away from them day by day, to help them get through their days with a little dignity, some degree of comfort and as little suffering as possible. But with diseases like dementia, this can be the hardest thing in the world as everything and everyone around the patient seems like a threat. Savage perfectly captures the roles between patient and carer, you can sense her own experiences coming through.
.
Others might find Savage’s prose a little purple at times, but I am a sucker for a flowery passage and found the juxtaposition between the rich writing and the ache of someone once independent becoming wholly reliant on someone else, a near stranger, for their most basic needs absolutely beautiful. It was devastating to watch Jill’s decline, and its impact on those around her as a once vibrant woman’s mind and body deteriorates and degrades in a fruitless war against time.
.
This book also offers up a meticulous and often uncomfortable examination of love, and what it means to love and be loved. Ella’s daily interactions with Jill and Bryn make her ponder on her relationship with her girlfriend, and although the ending took a direction I wasn’t expecting and I might not agree with all of Ella’s decisions, I still loved this book in all its quiet melancholy and reflection, set in motion by one woman’s unstoppable regression back into childhood.
Read
April 1, 2020Finishing this I felt weirdly hollow and uncomfortable, however that's one of the reasons why I did like + appreciate the book. It focuses in on a mid-to-late 20-something year old who is working as a caregiver and how she has become apart of their lives. This would be a fun book to analyze if you're feeling up to it (which honestly I am not currently :D), as it plays with intimacy, inner dialogue of a girl grappling with society's messages as to what a girl should be like, how we think our way into creating a reality that may or may not be true, and the pervasiveness of guilt. Many times the book was frustrating -- I just wanted to yell "DO THE THING" and I was eager to know the perspectives of the other characters, but both frustrations are incredibly realistic and the author does such a good job capturing these little pieces that makes up life.
If you're a plot-driven reader this book would likely not be up your alley, but if you're interested in books centering around emotion, very focused slices of life, and/or close character portraits OR if you're eager to read something that plays with the literary form a bit this may be up your alley.
If you're a plot-driven reader this book would likely not be up your alley, but if you're interested in books centering around emotion, very focused slices of life, and/or close character portraits OR if you're eager to read something that plays with the literary form a bit this may be up your alley.
September 7, 2019
Read for work, so I admit a skimmed a liiiittle bit in the end.
Regardless, I really enjoyed this short glimpse into a young woman's life as she cares for a deteriorating patient, leading her to form a friendship with the patient's husband. Savage writes clearly and beautifully, and offers some prescient observations on life, love, companionship and desire. There is quite a lot packed into this small, thoughtful book and I really enjoyed it!
Regardless, I really enjoyed this short glimpse into a young woman's life as she cares for a deteriorating patient, leading her to form a friendship with the patient's husband. Savage writes clearly and beautifully, and offers some prescient observations on life, love, companionship and desire. There is quite a lot packed into this small, thoughtful book and I really enjoyed it!
July 6, 2019
My review for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: http://www.startribune.com/review-say...
Companionship, as in a feeling of fellowship or friendship, is a sensation that virtually all people require and seek. Often and preferably, this state arises organically, but sometimes it has to be purchased, causing a knotty web of emotion and obligation to be woven by and around the parties involved. In her deeply felt but unsentimental debut novel “Say Say Say,” Minneapolis native Lila Savage explores the charged dynamic between a paid companion and the family she serves.
Twenty-nine and trying to figure out what she wants from life, the artistically inclined but directionless Ella works as a caregiver less out of passion than a need to do something to make a living. She has been working “as a companion for elderly people for six years, and somewhere along the way, sadness had lost its power to shock Ella the way it once had,” which she notes is for the best because in such a profession, one must come up with a “sustainable response,” being able “to step in and out of grief.”
In this brief, lyrical story, Ella finds herself at the apex of a triangle of compassion and confusion comprising Jill, an older woman in decline due to a head injury from a car accident, and Jill’s retired carpenter husband Bryn, a handsome and gentle but frustrated man who hires Ella as Jill’s home health aide. Younger than most of her previous clients, Jill is only 60, and a former social worker who now can’t “really converse, not in any meaningful sense.” The novel’s title is drawn from the compulsive phrase she utters, one of several that she repeats over and over as her memory disintegrates.
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a Wallace Stegner Fellow, Savage herself spent almost a decade working as a caregiver, and her insight into this fraught and intimate profession comes through on every page in incisive and beautiful language. The third-person narration is intensely reflective and psychologically revelatory, as when Ella fails to clarify to Bryn that her partner Alix is a woman. She thinks, “as Eleanor Roosevelt had reportedly longed to be beautiful, Ella longed to be good, and if a part of her wanted to distance itself from the bourgeois predictability of Bryn and Jill’s pre-accident life, another part of her was loath to dash Bryn’s illusion of wholesome, middling solidarity.”
As the assignment draws Ella further into Bryn and Jill’s orbit, she has to revise her own notions about duty and love. And in this deceptively simple book, the reader, too, receives an honest and empathetic opportunity to consider loneliness and the people whose labor gets bought to alleviate it.
Companionship, as in a feeling of fellowship or friendship, is a sensation that virtually all people require and seek. Often and preferably, this state arises organically, but sometimes it has to be purchased, causing a knotty web of emotion and obligation to be woven by and around the parties involved. In her deeply felt but unsentimental debut novel “Say Say Say,” Minneapolis native Lila Savage explores the charged dynamic between a paid companion and the family she serves.
Twenty-nine and trying to figure out what she wants from life, the artistically inclined but directionless Ella works as a caregiver less out of passion than a need to do something to make a living. She has been working “as a companion for elderly people for six years, and somewhere along the way, sadness had lost its power to shock Ella the way it once had,” which she notes is for the best because in such a profession, one must come up with a “sustainable response,” being able “to step in and out of grief.”
In this brief, lyrical story, Ella finds herself at the apex of a triangle of compassion and confusion comprising Jill, an older woman in decline due to a head injury from a car accident, and Jill’s retired carpenter husband Bryn, a handsome and gentle but frustrated man who hires Ella as Jill’s home health aide. Younger than most of her previous clients, Jill is only 60, and a former social worker who now can’t “really converse, not in any meaningful sense.” The novel’s title is drawn from the compulsive phrase she utters, one of several that she repeats over and over as her memory disintegrates.
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a Wallace Stegner Fellow, Savage herself spent almost a decade working as a caregiver, and her insight into this fraught and intimate profession comes through on every page in incisive and beautiful language. The third-person narration is intensely reflective and psychologically revelatory, as when Ella fails to clarify to Bryn that her partner Alix is a woman. She thinks, “as Eleanor Roosevelt had reportedly longed to be beautiful, Ella longed to be good, and if a part of her wanted to distance itself from the bourgeois predictability of Bryn and Jill’s pre-accident life, another part of her was loath to dash Bryn’s illusion of wholesome, middling solidarity.”
As the assignment draws Ella further into Bryn and Jill’s orbit, she has to revise her own notions about duty and love. And in this deceptively simple book, the reader, too, receives an honest and empathetic opportunity to consider loneliness and the people whose labor gets bought to alleviate it.
June 4, 2019
I received a free digital ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Say Say Say is the story of a caregiver named Ella. Many of the early interactions between Ella and her clients are insightful and realistic, and I was not surprised to learn that Savage worked as a caregiver for many years before writing this novel. As the book progressed, I found it unfocused for such a short novel, and while it is character-driven, there isn't significant change or growth for the central characters. There are segues into Ella's past romantic relationships, her current relationship, and a bit about her past clients. The central, or at least recurring, story revolves around Ella and her client Jill's husband, Bryn. While Bryn is much older and of a different generation, Ella has strong feelings for/about Bryn - at times it seems they have a strong camaraderie, at other times a close working relationship, and sometimes she seems to feel an attraction for him. For me, Ella's relationships with her declining clients and her place in their homes was of the most interest. I didn't feel invested in any particular outcome between Ella and Bryn, and perhaps this is why the novel also felt unfinished to me. Still, there are some lovely and realistic moments throughout the novel and I would be interested to see what Savage writes next.
Say Say Say is the story of a caregiver named Ella. Many of the early interactions between Ella and her clients are insightful and realistic, and I was not surprised to learn that Savage worked as a caregiver for many years before writing this novel. As the book progressed, I found it unfocused for such a short novel, and while it is character-driven, there isn't significant change or growth for the central characters. There are segues into Ella's past romantic relationships, her current relationship, and a bit about her past clients. The central, or at least recurring, story revolves around Ella and her client Jill's husband, Bryn. While Bryn is much older and of a different generation, Ella has strong feelings for/about Bryn - at times it seems they have a strong camaraderie, at other times a close working relationship, and sometimes she seems to feel an attraction for him. For me, Ella's relationships with her declining clients and her place in their homes was of the most interest. I didn't feel invested in any particular outcome between Ella and Bryn, and perhaps this is why the novel also felt unfinished to me. Still, there are some lovely and realistic moments throughout the novel and I would be interested to see what Savage writes next.
September 16, 2019
2.75 stars ⭐️⭐️💫
This was a look into the life of a caregiver who aids the elderly and impaired, and her complex relationship with one family. It is without any real plot, but the novel's strengths are the relatable anecdotes concerning career choices, not being where you thought you'd be in life, and even the mundane, like battles with laziness and proper human interaction. It packs in a lot; grief, loss, brain trauma, queerness, blurred lines of employee/friend, but some of the pontifications on misogyny and religion felt misplaced or rushed and didn't retain my focus.
I enjoyed some of the MC's inner thoughts and reflections, but others across as random or seemed to ramble on and I lost interest. I felt for such a short novella, there were too many ideas packed together, and they all subsequently felt unfinished. But I do see potential in this debut author and will probably read her again!
This was a look into the life of a caregiver who aids the elderly and impaired, and her complex relationship with one family. It is without any real plot, but the novel's strengths are the relatable anecdotes concerning career choices, not being where you thought you'd be in life, and even the mundane, like battles with laziness and proper human interaction. It packs in a lot; grief, loss, brain trauma, queerness, blurred lines of employee/friend, but some of the pontifications on misogyny and religion felt misplaced or rushed and didn't retain my focus.
I enjoyed some of the MC's inner thoughts and reflections, but others across as random or seemed to ramble on and I lost interest. I felt for such a short novella, there were too many ideas packed together, and they all subsequently felt unfinished. But I do see potential in this debut author and will probably read her again!
December 7, 2019
Novel about what seems to me like a Craigslist, unlicensed caregiver (Ella)and her thoughts and ruminations while caring for a home bound and declining woman, Jill. The caregiving really takes a backseat in the narrative here to Ella’s thoughts on various topics from sexuality to awkwardness around older men, to her attraction to Bryn (Brin? Bryan?) to sadness to caregiving. It feels like it stems from the hours or boredom she must spend there, and she does talk about that a bit. But she tends use a lot of her time thinking about Bryn, trying to convince herself that she does not lust after him. That is, until she actually acknowledges to herself that she does lust for him. Their final interaction was weird, awkward, and not revelatory. The writing was great, sometimes I would get really lost in her thoughts, but there wasn’t much to this. More like 3.5 for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 30, 2019
After reading a little hype on the this short novel, I felt I needed to see what it was all about. Although I finished it, it was a struggle. It never went anywhere. It just never made progress. I kept hoping for something to actually happen, but it never did and it landed with a dud ending. No character growth, only rambling evaluation of Ella's life through Ella, before her role as caregiver and a lot after. She talks at length about her feelings, her rationalizations, her thoughts into the ground! Very disappointed.
April 20, 2019
This one's for the introspects, the overthinkers, the empaths...
Say Say Say is a slow-burning, thoughtful meditation on relationships, self-hood, and caregiving of many kinds. It's so easy to get lost in Lila Savage's beautiful language and main character Ella's swirling, intoxicating thoughts.
Say Say Say is a slow-burning, thoughtful meditation on relationships, self-hood, and caregiving of many kinds. It's so easy to get lost in Lila Savage's beautiful language and main character Ella's swirling, intoxicating thoughts.
August 29, 2019
Strangely enough, I really enjoyed this book. It's odd but heartfelt and real. No plot, just a few characters moving around each other.
July 5, 2020
short interior novel about a twenty something caregiver. beautifully written but bleak.
June 24, 2020
This is a remarkable and beautifully written story about Ella, almost 30, who is hired to take care of Jill, a 60ish year old woman with brain damage who is slowly sinking into dementia after an accident. Ella observes the love Bryn, the husband, feels for his wife even though she cannot acknowledge his love or even his presence in the room. What Ella learns affects every aspect of her life. Whew!
The beautiful way the author, Lila Savage, writes about this love is poetic and unforgettable. This is not a sappy Lifetime movie. "Enter Bryn's love for Jill. Routinely now he fished her turds out of the bathtub, he held her close when she wept, despite the smell of death that continually wafted from her neglected gums. He loved her in a hopeless way, and he showed it through the Sisyphean tasks of her daily care. It changed Ella, in a small but significant way. "
There are obvious trigger warnings here. If you have experienced the heartbreaking mental decline of a loved one or if you have worked as a sitter/caregiver, this might not be for you. But don't forget about it. Maybe one day, when your wounds have scabbed over, you will want to give it a try. It hit very close to home for me but for some reason, it didn't upset me or call up things I would rather forget.
Ms. Savage also has some insights about feminism and sexism that are worded so perfectly, I want to remember them so I can quote her.
Say, Say, Say is truly character driven. Don't expect a lot to happen plot-wise. I loved this book.
The beautiful way the author, Lila Savage, writes about this love is poetic and unforgettable. This is not a sappy Lifetime movie. "Enter Bryn's love for Jill. Routinely now he fished her turds out of the bathtub, he held her close when she wept, despite the smell of death that continually wafted from her neglected gums. He loved her in a hopeless way, and he showed it through the Sisyphean tasks of her daily care. It changed Ella, in a small but significant way. "
There are obvious trigger warnings here. If you have experienced the heartbreaking mental decline of a loved one or if you have worked as a sitter/caregiver, this might not be for you. But don't forget about it. Maybe one day, when your wounds have scabbed over, you will want to give it a try. It hit very close to home for me but for some reason, it didn't upset me or call up things I would rather forget.
Ms. Savage also has some insights about feminism and sexism that are worded so perfectly, I want to remember them so I can quote her.
Say, Say, Say is truly character driven. Don't expect a lot to happen plot-wise. I loved this book.
July 30, 2019
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy!
Ella is a caretaker for the elderly. It was something she fell into, and she's good at it: she has cultivated a gift for entering into people's lives with tenderness and a willingness to do the humbling tasks it requires. At the beginning of the story, she begins a new job caring for Jill, a woman disabled by a car accident. Seeing Jill and Bryn's life together, so exposed to an outsider, exposes her own discomfort with love and where she is in life.
It makes so much sense that Savage was a caregiver herself. She chronicles the minutiae of being in other people's homes, the value and monotony of the work, the tension that Ella faces between doing her job and extending real, true love to the people she meets. How are you supposed to spend all day in someone's home, witness the most intimate parts of their life, and stay professional? I think this book argues: let compassion and love consume you. It will break your heart, but it will also bring dignity.
In under 200 pages, Savage brings beauty and depth. Character driven, introspective, hopeful. "Wasn't there beauty in the practice of love and the roll and sweep of it?"
Ella is a caretaker for the elderly. It was something she fell into, and she's good at it: she has cultivated a gift for entering into people's lives with tenderness and a willingness to do the humbling tasks it requires. At the beginning of the story, she begins a new job caring for Jill, a woman disabled by a car accident. Seeing Jill and Bryn's life together, so exposed to an outsider, exposes her own discomfort with love and where she is in life.
It makes so much sense that Savage was a caregiver herself. She chronicles the minutiae of being in other people's homes, the value and monotony of the work, the tension that Ella faces between doing her job and extending real, true love to the people she meets. How are you supposed to spend all day in someone's home, witness the most intimate parts of their life, and stay professional? I think this book argues: let compassion and love consume you. It will break your heart, but it will also bring dignity.
In under 200 pages, Savage brings beauty and depth. Character driven, introspective, hopeful. "Wasn't there beauty in the practice of love and the roll and sweep of it?"
July 16, 2019
Ella, an aspiring artist now an in-home caregiver, is hired by Bryn to help him take care of his wife of many years. A car accident left Jill brain damaged, and she has completely lost her sense of self. Bryn has since cared for her himself, but as her state only keeps getting worse, he finally decided to seek help.
Bryn’s tender and unconditional love for Jill is nothing other than inspirational. As well as Ella’s determination to care and love for this stranger. Ella though, can’t help but fall for Bryn’s charisma and warmth, and she struggles to keep her feelings at bay.
If you’re an overthinker, like me, or simply a lover of Sally Rooney’s self-conscious writing style, you’ll love this one. 161 beautifully written pages on compassion and love will leave you thinking about life and what kind of person you want to be. The author really has a way with words, and the big impact these short pages had on me was utterly unexpected.
Bryn’s tender and unconditional love for Jill is nothing other than inspirational. As well as Ella’s determination to care and love for this stranger. Ella though, can’t help but fall for Bryn’s charisma and warmth, and she struggles to keep her feelings at bay.
If you’re an overthinker, like me, or simply a lover of Sally Rooney’s self-conscious writing style, you’ll love this one. 161 beautifully written pages on compassion and love will leave you thinking about life and what kind of person you want to be. The author really has a way with words, and the big impact these short pages had on me was utterly unexpected.
October 4, 2021
Interior to the point of brilliance at the start but it becomes maddening by the end. As with Elif Batuman's The Idiot, I felt exhausted by Savage's adherence to the aimless rhythms of real life and I was longing for something a little more propulsive by the end.
June 20, 2020
2.5 ⭐ I didn't click with this book from the start. I felt like I was reading only half the narrative with only Ella's side. Jill became the plot point, not a person, and this could have been so much better if we had chapters about Jill breaking up the many chapters about Ella's life outside the job. Jill had no development, we never found out what the accident was, why she holds a baby doll or why Say Say Say was one of the phrases she said to herself. Everything was either weirdly over gendered or overly sexual. I also think my disconnect came from it being too soon for me to be reading a story of a deteriorating old woman. It made me want to not connect to it so that I didn't relive the last year or so. In my effort to read the May Books That Matter book as close to May as possible, I really didn't think about why I shouldn't be reading this now until I was in the last chapters and starting to cry (or was crying until the weird sexual moments completely took me out of the story again)
August 15, 2019
A lot of interesting themes were touched upon in this slight novel, but I didn't feel any of them were explored fully. The most prominent of these was human, physical touch and how that connects and possibly heals us. I thought more could have been done with that.
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