CBR Bingo: And, because I think the use of the “and” in the title of this book is particularly punchy–melodically to the ear, stylistically, as a plot point
Well, might as well keep at it reviewing the more morose books in my back catalogue (having just finished Giovanni’s Room.
This is a book about Travis Smith, a sort of scruffy looking nondescript 30s something dude who is a real person but also the(?) a(?) personification of death who shows up both as people are dying and beforehand, to just sort of like…help out? Sometimes he helps the dying people clean up their house and organize their belongings before they die, sometimes he just hangs out and drinks tea with them, and sometimes he’s neither. At all points he’s sort of neutral, not interfering with what’s going on (you get one guess as to what will/might happen at the end of this book). Sometimes he’s just someone’s neighbor. It’s the last part that drives forward the ‘plot’ of the book–Travis moves down the hall from Dalia, a single mom of two daughters (Layla and Neta), and gets a bit enmeshed in their lives.
The structure of the book is such: there are chapters headed by vague descriptions of people who are about to die (A Very Old Woman, A Lonely Man, A Brand New Baby etc), and those chapters serve as little snippets of life for the people who are featured. Travis shows up and interacts with them, and then they die and you see their name and how old they were. These are interlaced by chapters wherein Travis interacts with Dalia and things happen, and what will happen to Dalia after some bad stuff happens. There’s a neat little twist at the end that you probably see coming, but I didn’t so I enjoyed it.
I will say I read this entire book missing DEATH of Discworld fame–I’m not really interested in a neural Angel of Death who is meant as a guidance. I like my death to have some pizzazz, you know? Either be colorful or particular or silly or vengeful, and find the pathos in the contrast between the character and the nature of their job. When Death is as omnipresent as death is, there’s a bit of mushiness to the entire concept that made me a bit mullish in my refusal to find it heartwrenching.
Then again, I’ve reached that age where relatives are older and getting mysterious illness, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that some of the death interludes hit me in the feels and brought some sad tears to my eyes. I don’t know why, but I keep running into death in books and it’s making me feel things. Actually no–I know why, it’s just noticing bias, because I’m more surrounded by it. In the worldbuilding of the book, Travis is hanging around my extended family a bit, and I don’t like it.
