• New Events
  • Feed
  • Subject
    • Eat
    • Sleep
    • Visit
    • Read
    • Listen
    • Watch
    • Life
    • Moonridge
  • Trending
  • Karen
  • Privacy Policy
  • Subscribe

Always Packed for Adventure!

It's the destination and the journey.

  • New Events
  • Feed
  • Subject
    • Eat
    • Sleep
    • Visit
    • Read
    • Listen
    • Watch
    • Life
    • Moonridge
  • Trending
  • Karen
  • Privacy Policy
  • Subscribe

Book Review- Annie Lyons' The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett

cover192777-medium.png

Thank you to HarperCollins Publishers for providing me with a copy of Annie Lyons’ novel, The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett, in exchange for an honest review.

Eudora Honeysett is eight-five years old and done with life. She decides that the most dignified death would be to pursue assisted suicide through a company in Switzerland. The process is not simple. It requires doctors appointments and months of thought, during which Eudora’s otherwise predictable life changes with the addition of new friends, including an unusual little girl named Rose and a fellow senior named Stanley. As Eudora discovers that there might be more to her life than she imagined, she is forced to confront difficult issues in her past.

I loved The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett. It’s an emotional journey that had me in tears for the last quarter of the story. I had to put the book down many times, because I became overcome with emotion. The best, most memorable books are ones that shake me to the core, and Lyons’ characters are sure to stay with me for a long time.

The story alternates between the present and Eudora’s younger years. We learn that trauma from Eudora’s early years has led her to put up walls, to protect herself. Octogenarian Eudora is tough, and even has a difficult time softening towards her cat, Montgomery. Lyons carefully balances the difficult senior Eudora, with the hurt child Eudora, giving us a well-rounded, relatable character.

I was struck by how much Eudora reminded me of my mother-in-law. This is not to say that they had similar situations, but more in the general way that senior Eudora has firm ideas about how a person should behave and tends to discredit activities that others use for joy. I also found my niece, Charis, in the character of Rose. Like my niece, Rose is an absolute force of nature, who gathers other people in her orbit. It’s a wonderful quality in a person, but it also means facing criticism by those less comfortable in their own skin. Eudora tries to resist Rose, but Rose simply won’t let her.

The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett is the perfect story to remind us to be compassionate towards others and to remember that we don’t always know the trials that other people face. It’s also a story about the importance of building our own tribe and that blood relatives are not our only family. Lyons has written an absolutely beautiful story with unforgettable characters. She is a new author discovery for me and I was thrilled to learn that she has written many other novels. I look forward to reading them all.

tags: The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett, The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett Annie Lyons, Annie Lyons Author, Eudora Honeysett Character, Novels Set in World War Two, Assisted Suicide in Switzerland, Novels About Assisted Suicide, Novels with Moral Dilemmas, Novels Set in England, Novels That Span Decades, Best Novels 2020, HarperCollins Publishers, Novels That Made me Cry, Tearjerker Novels, Why People Put up Walls, Montgomery the Cat, Novels About Growing Old, Novels About Grieving, Novels About Mental Illness, Multigenerational Novels, Novels with Senior Citizens, Novels By British Writers, Novels About Unlikely Friendships
categories: Read
Thursday 11.19.20
Posted by Karen Lea Germain
 

Book Review- Jacob M. Appel's Millard Salter's Last Day

cover117760-medium.png

 

Thank you to Gallery Books for providing me with a copy of Jacob M. Appel's novel, Millard Salter's Last Day, in exchange for an honest review.

PLOT- Psychiatrist Millard Salter has decided to kill himself. The love of his life has recently died after an illness and he fears the idea of growing old with the possibility of having a disease or needing assistance. He feels that he has lived enough life and plans to hang himself, while things are still good. With this plan in mind, he spends his last couple of days tying up loose ends. He tries to wrap things up at work and visits with his ex-wife and adult children. He soon learns that leaving might not be as easy as he had anticipated.

LIKE- It took me time to get into the pacing and rhythm of Millard Salter's Last Day, but as soon as I did (last third of the story,) I felt swept away. Appel has created a complicated protagonist in Salter and I felt the weight of his worries and sorrows. Through his characters, Appel makes a strong argument for the need to have assisted suicide and speaks to the trauma of watching a loved one battle through a terminal disease. Salter helps a loved on with assisted suicide, which is described in detail. 

Although Salter is a lauded psychiatrist, his fears and depression create a situation where he justifies ending his life.  I suppose the argument could be made that people should have the freedom to live their lives ( or end their lives) as they see fit, at any stage, but I felt the overriding theme of Millard Salter's Last Day is that Salter's life should not end. His judgement is clouded. The worst of it, is none of the other doctor's at the hospital where he works, even notice that something is wrong. They are too busy trying to get ahead in their careers and dealing with office politics. Salter's family doesn't notice either. It's a sad and unfortunate situation all around, a commentary on how isolated people can feel and how blind we can all be to the suffering of others.

DISLIKE- Millard Salter's Last Day is pitched as a book similar to Frederik Backman's novel, A Man Called Ove. They deal with similar themes; like Salter, Ove is hell-bent on killing himself and finds the leaving process to be more difficult than anticipated. However, that's where the similarities end. Backman's novel has humor and light to breakup the heavy theme. Ove undergoes a huge transformation, where as Salter stays the same. Salter's weak story arc, my primary issue with the story.

I had compassion for Salter, but I found him to be a difficult character to stay with for an entire novel. I couldn't read Millard Salter's Last Day, without reading several other books at the same time. As such, it took me over a month to read, when it should have taken a day or two. As I mentioned previously, it didn't grab me until the last third, the first two-thirds were sluggish.

RECOMMEND- Probably not. Millard Salter's Last Day is heavy. Salter is a solid character, but he  doesn't have a solid story. 

 

tags: Millard Salter's Last Day Novel, Jacob M. Appel Author, Millard Salter's Last Day Jacob M, Jacob M Appel Author, Novels About Suicide, Novels About Assisted Suicide, Discussion About Assisted Suicide, A Man Called Ove Fredrik Backman, Like a Man Called Ove, Millard Salter Character, Novels About Grief, Gallery Books, Net Galley, Novel About Psychiatry
categories: Read
Sunday 01.07.18
Posted by Karen Lea Germain
 

Powered by Squarespace 6