The Good Stuff
So incredibly good I could not put it down even though it was 2am and I had to get up at 6am
This one will win awards people
So honest and real and makes you self reflect on your own life
I was bawling on many occasions (but I was smart this time I read this kind of book at home)
Harold is such a fascinating character - so very real - warts and all - the type of man we all have met in some point in our own lives
So honestly portrays grief, guilt and forgiveness
So many wonderful insights about life
Uncomfortable to read at times as it makes you look into yourself and the see some of the misplaced anger and resentment that can occur in a marriage and the joys and horror of raising a child
I am having a really difficult time expressing how incredibly wonderful book this is, but I was incredibly moved by it and well just go buy it already (or of course support your local library and check out a copy & be really nice to the library staff as they most likely are incredibly awesome)
some wonderful light humour perfectly placed at the spot that you need it most
The Not So Good Stuff
some minor repetition but nothing too bad
It will break your heart (again not really a bad thing more a warning really)
So good once you start reading you will not want to put it down -- Rachel Joyce you owe me some very strong tea I was up till the wee hours of the morning reading it
Favorite Quotes/Passages
"He had never been good at expressing himself. What he felt was so big it was difficult to find the words, and even if he could, it was hardly appropriate to write them to someone he had not contacted in twenty years."
"They believed in him. They had looked at him in his yachting shoes, and listened to what he said, and they made a decision in their hearts and minds to ignore the evidence and to imagine something bigger and something infinitely more beautiful than the obvious."
"He understood that in walking to atone for the mistakes he had made, it was also his journey to accept the strangeness of others. As a passerby, he was in a place where everything, not only the land, was open. People would feel free to talk, and he was free to listen. To carry a little of them as he went. He had neglected so many things that he owed this small piece of generosity to Queenie and the past."
"He had learned that it was the smallness of people that filled him with wonder and tenderness, and the loneliness of that too. The world was made up of people putting one foot in front of the other; and life might appear ordinary simply because the person living it had been doing so for a long time. Harold could no longer pass a stranger without acknowledging the truth that everyone was the same, and also unique; and this was the dilemma of being human."
Who Should/Shouldn't Read
Anyone and everyone should read
If you like non stop action and plenty of sex -- well this IS NOT the book for you -- this is a book that you should read and discuss
Excellent read for a book club - so many honest discussions could arise from it
Know what I am getting for the SIL and sister this year for xmas -- shhh don't tell them!
5 Dewey's
I picked this up at BEA and it is signed by the author
