Scan barcode
A review by cle_hobbit
And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman
5.0
I wanted to hug this tiny book after I finished reading it and weep over the beauty and simplicity Backman employs to tackle the slow, unyielding ballooning grief and present anxiety that are unique to watching a parent or grandparent slowly lose their memory and identity.
It moves seamlessly from a dream-like world where grandson and grandfather communicate without barrier, and vignettes/flashbacks between father and son and husband and wife. This book is less of a story and more a series of difficult yet endearing conversations between the different duos.
In a blink of an eye, Backman touches on the innocence and infinite possibility of young minds, the fear and confusion that the self feels when losing sense of itself, the regrets of making mistakes as a parent but also the joys of parenting, the understanding and acceptance of not always agreeing but taking the journey together, and the wisdom that travels down through generations like the water that percolates through the top soil along the roots of a weathered but continuously blossoming tree.
It moves seamlessly from a dream-like world where grandson and grandfather communicate without barrier, and vignettes/flashbacks between father and son and husband and wife. This book is less of a story and more a series of difficult yet endearing conversations between the different duos.
In a blink of an eye, Backman touches on the innocence and infinite possibility of young minds, the fear and confusion that the self feels when losing sense of itself, the regrets of making mistakes as a parent but also the joys of parenting, the understanding and acceptance of not always agreeing but taking the journey together, and the wisdom that travels down through generations like the water that percolates through the top soil along the roots of a weathered but continuously blossoming tree.