This was an epistolary debut novel. It was different. It was funny. It dealt with death and loss and made us think of how people are, some wonderful, some clueless, some lost, some found. Jan and I read this one in two days. It was a quick read, but one that left us having a bit of a different view.
Thirty three years old and dead of cancer. This is an age where many are just starting to live and find their way and place in the world, and yet for Iris Massey, life was at an end. She worked for Smith Simonyi, and it is he who is surprised by a blog written by Iris that contained her musings about life, death, love and longing. It was a sad, yet oftentimes humorous look and Carl, an over zealous intern, though not too hard working intern, and Smith decide to honor Iris’s last wish and get her blog published.
Enter into this, was Iris’s sister, Jade, who is reeling from the loss of her sister. She doesn’t want the blog published so she enters this war of words with Smith and as they battle one another verbally, they learn not only about Iris but also about themselves.
I have to say, I am not a fan of books that tend to be on the gimmicky side. I think the gimmicks often take away something, don’t ask me what exactly, from the telling. I guess I prefer the words, and yes, there were some wonderful words in this story, to be the harbingers of the book. Did I laugh, you bet. Did I cry, well no, but I did feel sadness, and in the end is that not what a book should do, make you feel something? This was a book to make you think of what the loss of a young life does and how in the end, life does go on, but for those left behind the void can never be filled. What is left behind are our words and if they are written words, they become a kind of legacy.
yaya_reads (Marialyce) 