Some Recent Books I've Read
SCARBOROUGH by CATHERINE HERNANDEZ. If you live in or around Toronto, you know of Scarborough. Hernandez’s novel is set here, amidst the pockets of poverty and diversity.
Through the voices of both, children and adults, we see the
daily lives and struggles that never make the news – until tragedy strikes.
It’s through the eyes of the 3 children – Bing, Sylvie, Laura – we see the
grittiness, the neglect, the racism that many still endure. Hina Hassani, is the compassionate teacher who
runs the literacy centre at the public school, beseeching her supervisor for
supplies to fill the kids’ hungry tummies at breakfast. And yet, and yet…the
reality is…kids fall through the cracks, while the authorities are focused on
numbers and dollars.
Hernandez give a voice to those who are used to not being
heard.
*
In her memoir, HEARTBROKEN, Laura Pratt writes of her prolonged period (several years) of grief after her long-distance partner left her. Theirs was a heady, passionate, magical romance that lasted six years, she in Toronto, he in Montreal.
Pratt writes with raw honesty. But this is not just the
personal story of one woman’s romance. Pratt is a journalist, and her own story
is woven into meticulous and interesting research of the physiology, scientific
and literary explorations of what it means to love, to lose, to grieve the loss
of another. The heart can undergo real physical changes when it grieves.
Haven’t we heard of people who die of heartbreak after a
loved one dies?
Who among us has not felt the pain of losing someone, be it
a parent, romantic partner, sibling or friend?
And what happens when one keeps on grieving the end of a
relationship, long after people think you should ‘buck up’ and get on with it?
“Heartbreak knows grief as a sister; it is its most
elemental expression.”
“I dwelled in a trough, dragging my anguish a metre below
the sidewalk.”
Pratt writes beautifully.
“All sorrows can be borne if you . . . tell a story about
them” Isak Dinesen (as quoted in the book).
*
LUCY BY THE SEA by ELIZABETH STROUT. I haven’t read all the others in this ‘series’, although I’ve read Strout before and am familiar with her spare prose and simple, straightforward sentences. Given that this book is set during the pandemic and has received high praise, I wondered what my reaction to it would be.
Strout’s books rely heavily on character and very little on
plot. We get inside Lucy’s head immediately. All the little things we may have
observed and thought to ourselves during 2020, we see again, this time
amplified through Lucy’s observant eyes.
Like the times when we may have missed an opportunity to be
kind: Lucy laments not giving up her place in line outside a grocery store
(remember those line-ups?) to an elderly gentleman, especially when the woman
behind her, not much younger than she is, does. Oh, those pangs of remorse and
wondering what kind of person am I?
There isn’t much to say about Strout that hasn’t already
been said. We see parts of ourselves in her characters. Look, this is you,
you’re not alone in these thoughts and feelings. Because ultimately, her books
are about what it is to be human.
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