Life Before Death

by Abby Frucht

The discovery of a lump in her breast and the subsequent fire in the museum where she works force a museum curator to reorder her life. Reprint.

Genres: Fiction

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Marguerite Hargreaves]

A beautiful story about hope and possibility. Isobel is diagnosed with metastatic cancer, and there's a fire at the museum where she works. With the help of her friends and damaged artifacts from the museum, she faces her uncertain future. Abby Frucht's novel is well-written and her characters are memorable. Time travel is an element in the plot, and Frucht helps readers keep track of the leaps. I'll look for more of her work.

[Shaindel]

Frucht's exploration of a mild-mannered museum curator's journey through the process of breast cancer is amazing. I loved the alternating views of reality/what could be/could have been in the character's life. Excellent psychological study of a character.

[Lukie]

I don't personally know anyone else who has read Abby Frucht so it's nice to go on Goodreads and find that other people have discovered and appreciate her work. Which I find myself inadequate to the task of describing. Here are a few words that come to mind: emotionally powerful in a way that builds gradually because the story is odd and follows two different paths in time, two realities, or one reality and one fantasy, and in the end just socks you. I might not recommend it to someone with breast cancer but it depends because there are passages like this one:
" ...somehow deep down without even knowing it I think I'd blamed myself for my illness....So to think that a piece of glass, a thing so transparent, so candid, so unambiguous, so rational as glass--to think that a thing as pure as glass might still self-destruct made me feel cleansed and pure, too. Lucid as a goblet. Baptized. Innocent, somehow. Not guilty."
Frucht's story is kind of weird like Miranda July but a kinder kind of weird. Gentler, more dignified. So rich and even funny!

[Deb]

This book is beautifully written with lyrical prose. I will admit some confusion around how the author takes her main character and simultaneously has her Living and beating cancer before her death, while at the same time, quickly reaching the end. But in the end, it is a story of strength, humor, friendships, love and what happens when one realizes that living in a moment is the most important thing.

[Jeanne]

Woman dies of cancer, lives imaginary life

[Beverly]

I read most of this book in one sitting. The writing is witty, heart wrenching, and loaded with emotional truth. The novel is imaginative and cathartic, painful and funny, just like life. Read it!