 |
| (Amazon UK link) |
I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, at first. The main character is 28-year-old Ailsa Rae. The first few pages of the book contain a blog post she has written while in hospital, waiting for a new heart. She has had several surgeries during her life, due to a serious heart problem which she was born with. And now her heart is finally failing, with her only hope being a transplant. She’s been waiting a long time, and is pretty sure she can’t live much longer.
Given that the book is about this young woman, it’s not surprising that the second section, dated a few days later, recounts the availability of a heart, almost at the last moment. And for the same reason, I wasn’t surprised that the risky surgery is a success, and that Ailsa starts to recover well, though she’ll be taking anti-rejection drugs for the rest of her life.
Ailsa is the only child of a single mother, Hayley, who has protected and rooted for her all her life. They live in Edinburgh, and Hayley has quite a pronounced Scottish accent. Hayley smokes, which seems like a very bad idea when her daughter has a damaged heart, but she’s a deeply caring mother, one who - as we learn - has given up a lot so that her daughter can have the extra care that’s needed.
Most of the book takes place over the course of the next year, as Ailsa gradually discovers what it’s like to be ‘normal’. She no longer gets blue-tinged skin; she no longer has to think about how much breath she has left. She can possibly get a job for the first time, and maybe even a passport. She has to take one step at a time, and she also has to alter some of her perceptions. She’s a likeable person, but she’s never learned to live a normal life.
The writing is a mixture of blog posts expressing Ailsa’s current situation and feelings, and ordinary narrative saying what is going on. There are also quite a few flashbacks to a year previously, and a very moving side story about her good friend Lennox. He also needed a transplant, but, sadly, none was available. His family are gradually coming to terms with their loss, and trying to bring something positive out of it.
There’s a romantic interest, too, mostly kept quite low key. Ailsa meets an attractive man on a radio show where she is dressed as a unicorn, due to a poll on her blog. It turns out that he’s quite a well-known actor although she has never heard of him. She doesn’t expect him to be at all interested in her, partly because she’s put on quite a bit of weight, with months of inactivity and also related to some of the drugs she has to take…
It took me a while to get into this book; it’s cleverly done, but with so many short sections I found it hard to get into the flow of reading. I liked the way the author includes some information about Ailsa’s condition without it ever feeling overtly educational. I also liked the way Ailsa is quite honest about her progress on her blog. On almost every post she provides a poll and asks for votes; she finds it hard to make decisions herself, partly because she’s never really been able to do anything much, and has had to take advice.
There are a lot of different threads to the book. Ailsa goes dancing, and gets involved with a Shakespeare play. The story touches on issues such as how to separate from a protective parent when that protection has saved one’s life to date. It also looks at whether it’s a good idea to search for a long-lost biological father, and the importance of real loving family ties as opposed to someone who didn’t bother to stay in touch. And there are quite a few scenes or conversations about body size, which I thought were handled well.
There aren’t really any surprises; the ‘hero’ is a thoroughly nice person, but so are most of the characters. It’s a thought-provoking book in some ways: I hadn’t really considered the emotional journey that has to be taken, in addition to the physical recovery, for someone who has grown up with a life-threatening condition. The writing is good, and the outcome of the story quite positive.
Recommended, if you like this kind of book and don’t mind the rather mixed style of writing.
No comments:
Post a Comment