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gianm 's review for:
The End of Your Life Book Club
by Will Schwalbe
I’d like to preface this by saying that I liked this book, I really did. But, I can’t understand all this effusive praise. It was a good read but not great. The book was at times quite tedious. It had moments where it was clumsy and disjointed which stopped the flow in a jarring way. It could have used a good editor.
As a book about reading it was not overly satisfying. The conversations about books were often cursory or very shallow – although there is a chapter devoted to Didion’s “Year of Magical Thinking” the book is discussed for less than 2 pages and most of that is devoted to a long quote. Randy Pausch’s “The Last Lecture” receives only a fleeting mention, come on now! There are very few books that the mother and son talked about that I wanted to rush out and read or to strike-off my “to read” list. I just didn’t care. As a memoir I also found it lacking. I often found myself a bit bewildered by the people and relationships in the book – the father is mentioned so rarely as to be virtually non-existent, the son comes out to his mother about his sexuality in a letter and she responds by return post! How odd. The author so idolizes his mother that she quickly becomes a one dimensional figure even though she’s had an extraordinary life and is a very accomplished woman. To be honest, I wanted to know a lot more about her and much less about him.
That being said, what I truly liked about the book are the insights that it provides around how people with cancer are treated and the chemo culture that exists in hospitals. I wish I had read it when my mother was alive. I spent six months accompanying my mom to her chemo appointments and other hospital visits and I realized, too late, that oncologists and other medical practitioners are reluctant to tell you the truth. I think it would have helped me be a stronger advocate for my mom and it would have altered some of the decisions we made. The other great part about this book is that it talks frankly about the awkwardness surrounding the end of life - the conversations that need to be had and the things that need to get done. For that alone I would recommend it especially for those people who are going through this trying and difficult time.
[b:The End of Your Life Book Club|13414676|The End of Your Life Book Club|Will Schwalbe|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1333576665s/13414676.jpg|18713903]
As a book about reading it was not overly satisfying. The conversations about books were often cursory or very shallow – although there is a chapter devoted to Didion’s “Year of Magical Thinking” the book is discussed for less than 2 pages and most of that is devoted to a long quote. Randy Pausch’s “The Last Lecture” receives only a fleeting mention, come on now! There are very few books that the mother and son talked about that I wanted to rush out and read or to strike-off my “to read” list. I just didn’t care. As a memoir I also found it lacking. I often found myself a bit bewildered by the people and relationships in the book – the father is mentioned so rarely as to be virtually non-existent, the son comes out to his mother about his sexuality in a letter and she responds by return post! How odd. The author so idolizes his mother that she quickly becomes a one dimensional figure even though she’s had an extraordinary life and is a very accomplished woman. To be honest, I wanted to know a lot more about her and much less about him.
That being said, what I truly liked about the book are the insights that it provides around how people with cancer are treated and the chemo culture that exists in hospitals. I wish I had read it when my mother was alive. I spent six months accompanying my mom to her chemo appointments and other hospital visits and I realized, too late, that oncologists and other medical practitioners are reluctant to tell you the truth. I think it would have helped me be a stronger advocate for my mom and it would have altered some of the decisions we made. The other great part about this book is that it talks frankly about the awkwardness surrounding the end of life - the conversations that need to be had and the things that need to get done. For that alone I would recommend it especially for those people who are going through this trying and difficult time.
[b:The End of Your Life Book Club|13414676|The End of Your Life Book Club|Will Schwalbe|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1333576665s/13414676.jpg|18713903]