In Search of Gentle Death by Richard N. Cote

In Search of Gentle Death

by Richard N. Cote

 

This is a profoundly difficult topic but one that has been brought to my attention several times this year so when I saw this book, I wanted to read it and share it with others. 

Who knows what death will bring?  Is there existence when the body dies?  Is the energy that holds this collection of atoms together simply absorbed back into the Universe or does the consciousness survive?  Are we reborn to this Earth or to another existence, another plane, altogether?  Some believe there is a heaven where we go to live on, much like we lived here, though under more peaceful circumstances, while others believe something is across the threshold but don’t know what. 

“For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;”

Hamlet, William Shakespeare

Different beliefs give people differing views of whether they have a say in when their life ends.  This book contends that the choice, whatever it is and for whatever reason it is held, should be up to the individual. 

The history of the movement is portrayed through short biographies of the people involved, showing how and why they have come to this view. 

The Preface begins “Life has an expiration date.  That we cannot change.  Longevity, on the other hand, increases each year… Unfortunately, the same technology has also prolonged the time it takes us to die – and agonizing pain and loss of autonomy often come with protracted, lingering death.”

The first chapter of the book shares the story of the author’s friend and minister George Exoo and the book continues on with a chapter each devoted to different founders of the movement. 

This book is dense, with nearly 400 pages plus appendices.  It’s difficult to give you the flavor in a short review, but it is also very well written and easy to read.  There is a depth of information and food for thought. 

Whatever side of the debate you fall on, I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the topic.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

 

 

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

by Neil Gaiman

 

I listened to Neil Gaiman read this book some weeks ago on audio CD and it was brilliant! The other day I received the hard copy so I could write this review and stared at it in shock.  This is a very small book, but it certainly didn’t seem that way when I listened to it.  (Okay, then I listened to it again.) It’s only 178 pages, probably somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 words.

 

That seems particularly appropriate as we are in the midst of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) where the goal is to write 50,000 words in one month. Here is an example of something of that length.  It makes me wonder how many words were in the first draft, whether it was longer and edited down or shorter and added to in the rewriting and editing phase. Yes, I’m still getting over my shock.  It does not read like such a small book.  It is very much a big book.

 

The story begins with the narrator returning to visit his childhood home on the day of a funeral.

 

“I had done my duty in the morning, spoken the words I was meant to speak, and I meant them as I spoke them…”

 

I don’t think the author ever directly tells us who the funeral is for. I surmised that it was for the father but we never really know for certain.

 

Then we move back into the main part of the story, a remembrance of things past, when the narrator was but a little boy of seven or so. The vocabulary is somewhat advanced for the age of the main protagonist but perhaps not for a bookish child, as we find out right off.

 

“… the lady at the bakery said that they had never put a book on a birthday cake before, that mostly for boys it was footballs or spaceships. I was their first book.”

 

When no other children arrive for the party, he goes upstairs to read his new set of Narnia books.

It is is not exactly what I would call a horror book though there are horrors, all the more sinister and horrible for how close to home they are. It reminds me most of the Madeleine L’Engle fantasy books I read in my middle school years, though a bit more adult. The good witches come in threes, just like the three witches in A Wind in the Door.

 

The setting is so well realized – the author never overdoes the details but each detail adds to the suburban/rural setting with a large yard and garden, perhaps a bit overgrown, goldenrod and heather growing where they please, and a small farm down the lane.

 

It’s the perfect tale for a cold fall day or a dark winter’s night. It’s a fairy tale and a bit of a horror story and all too real in places. When you get to the end, you might just find yourself going back and reading it again, like I did.