Three Strictly Observed Books Showcase the Enduring Attraction of Memories


Crab mocks D’Aguiar by telling him he’s only interested in putting his name in front of a book. Cancer calls out “that ridiculous stationary bike of yours.” I am happy to report that “Plagues of the Year” ends with cautious optimism. Cancer had to come down.

Grue is a Norwegian writer and academic with a shrewd, harsh, simplified prose style. His book details a life largely spent in a wheelchair, but is able to walk a little, dreams of freedom of movement, and avoids reliance on others and their gaze.

Grue, 40, is the son of prominent academics in Oslo. He had a privileged childhood in many ways. When he was younger he was told that his disease was progressive and would get worse. Fortunately, that turned out not to be true. But he recounts a childhood spent shivering in his underwear in cold doctor’s offices, wearing painful leg braces at night and trying to fit in.

He often fell and could not help himself. On the playground for a while, he wore a padded blue helmet. She writes it perfectly: “There are worse things than banging your head, one of which is being the kid who always wears a helmet.”

Grue is married and has one child. His body is lean but he largely lives a “life like yours,” as the name suggests. While he writes very well about his desire not to be too polite and impulsive, he is aware that, in his own words, “he cannot live in an uninterrupted war with the whole world”. Her peppery feelings are sincere about her “hostile impulses, discomfort, ill will.”

Grue is helplessly epigrammatic: “Diagnosis is not destiny”; “Even the weak can despise the weak”; “The gaze of others is disciplined”; and cleverly, “The search for a higher purpose can also be an attempt to escape.”

Credit…NTB Scanpix Sipa USA

“A Life Like Yours” is a quietly bright book that is slowly warming in the hands. A bonus is the author’s article about clothing. Grue learns to pay attention to style and cut. It’ll be a bit of a dandy.



Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *