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A review by bunburyist
What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez
2.0
This almost felt like a one woman play to me.
A much better work about a literary teacher dying of cancer is Margaret Edson’s “Wit.”
[b:Wit|171201|Wit|Margaret Edson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327908183l/171201._SY75_.jpg|2206]
The only character in “What Are You Going Through” who has a name is a girl named Winnie who is described in a brief digression about the dying woman’s favorite book bag when she was a child.
You know that one friend who tells you about their day but it takes forever because they keep getting side tracked on annoying tangents that you just don't care about, and they don't know how to self sensor or edit? That person is the narrator in this book. All of the digressions and lack of names made the story feel purposefully distant. Also there really isn't any dialogue, because it's all told to us from the main character's narration. Additionally, both the main character and her dying friend have these digressions every few pages and it is often confusing, due to the lack of names and lack of quotation marks, who is having this memory and who is saying what.
I would say maybe half, or a little less than half of this book is about this woman keeping her friend company while she is dying of cancer. The digressions take up so much space in this already short novel. And none of them are interesting or important to the story. The friendship at the core of this book is also weak. The main character has this idea she should talk her friend out of ending her life on her own terms, but what does she think she is keeping her friend around for? A few more weeks so she can die of natural causes in excruiciating pain?
I live in a US state where "death with dignity/physician assisted suicide/medical aid in dying" is legal, and I sometimes forget that it's not more widely legalized in the US.
A much better work about a literary teacher dying of cancer is Margaret Edson’s “Wit.”
[b:Wit|171201|Wit|Margaret Edson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327908183l/171201._SY75_.jpg|2206]
The only character in “What Are You Going Through” who has a name is a girl named Winnie who is described in a brief digression about the dying woman’s favorite book bag when she was a child.
You know that one friend who tells you about their day but it takes forever because they keep getting side tracked on annoying tangents that you just don't care about, and they don't know how to self sensor or edit? That person is the narrator in this book. All of the digressions and lack of names made the story feel purposefully distant. Also there really isn't any dialogue, because it's all told to us from the main character's narration. Additionally, both the main character and her dying friend have these digressions every few pages and it is often confusing, due to the lack of names and lack of quotation marks, who is having this memory and who is saying what.
I would say maybe half, or a little less than half of this book is about this woman keeping her friend company while she is dying of cancer. The digressions take up so much space in this already short novel. And none of them are interesting or important to the story. The friendship at the core of this book is also weak. The main character has this idea she should talk her friend out of ending her life on her own terms, but what does she think she is keeping her friend around for? A few more weeks so she can die of natural causes in excruiciating pain?
I live in a US state where "death with dignity/physician assisted suicide/medical aid in dying" is legal, and I sometimes forget that it's not more widely legalized in the US.