Title: Hello, Goodbye
Author: Emily Chenoweth
Helen Hansen is a counselor in her early forties, a mother and a wife, who comes in a from a jog on a wintry Saturday morning and collapses on the kitchen floor. She's quickly diagnosed with terminal brain cancer (but her husband Elliott chooses not to tell her about the dire nature of her fate), and the next summer the couple, along with their college-age daughter Abby travel to New Hampshire to get together with old friends for what will be their last reunion.
I read through this book pretty quickly, and the Hansens' fate moved me. Practically overnight, Helen went from being a young, vibrant woman, to someone who needed help getting dressed, couldn't spell, and often forgot words. Elliott watched the woman he loved turn old, and he knew she was going to die, but felt that the remainder of her life would be better if she didn't know quite so quickly. And Abby juggled being self-absorbed and going through a process of self-discovery with the very adult task of losing her mother.
The book reminded me of The Big Chill, or some other kind of "let's get together after a long time" kind of book, superimposed with "Beaches" or a tearjerker of that ilk. It was an interesting, quick read, and I liked the characterizations of both Elliott and Abby (flawed both), but I don't know that it's a book that's a must-read or something I'd recommend to others.
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