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A review by cooperca
This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance! by Jonathan Evison
5.0
I was on Bainbridge Island when I discovered a wonderful bookstore, Eagle Harbor Book Company. Written by a local author, This is Your Life sounded like a book that would show that it's never too late to take on a new adventure. Harriet is 78, recently widowed. When she finds out her husband had planned a cruise for two to Alaska, her desire to prove her independence leads her to take the cruise.
The story is told in a non-linear way, with two POV's. The omnipresent voice reads like the old TV-show, This is Your Life. Reliving various parts of her past, we learn of her dreams and hopes, her loves, her kids, her faults, and a traumatic "event" that would always be in the background of her life. Other chapters are told from Harriet's POV. She also reminisces about her past and as the cruise takes her out of her comfort zone, secrets, hers, her kids, her dead husband's, all come out.
At the end, I was crying. Crying as Harriet forgave not only her cheating dead husband, but mainly she forgave herself. I took the ending to mean one thing. But in reading the Questions for Discussions in the back, I realized that the ending could have two meanings. It all depended on our perspective.
Beautifully told, with a lot of heart and human faults.
"You can't remember getting old....It happened gradually. The years just wore you away, dulled your edges, leached the color from your face, and flattened you out like river rocks." (p. 131)
"'The hell with Donna Mae,' says Harriet. 'Become an advocate for yourself.'" (p. 203)
"While the days unfold, one after the other, and the numbers all move in one direction, our lives are not linear, Harriet. We are the sum of moments and reflections, actions and decisions, triumphs, failures, and yearnings, all of it held together, inexplicably, miraculously, really, by memory and association." (p. 293)
The story is told in a non-linear way, with two POV's. The omnipresent voice reads like the old TV-show, This is Your Life. Reliving various parts of her past, we learn of her dreams and hopes, her loves, her kids, her faults, and a traumatic "event" that would always be in the background of her life. Other chapters are told from Harriet's POV. She also reminisces about her past and as the cruise takes her out of her comfort zone, secrets, hers, her kids, her dead husband's, all come out.
At the end, I was crying. Crying as Harriet forgave not only her cheating dead husband, but mainly she forgave herself. I took the ending to mean one thing. But in reading the Questions for Discussions in the back, I realized that the ending could have two meanings. It all depended on our perspective.
Beautifully told, with a lot of heart and human faults.
"You can't remember getting old....It happened gradually. The years just wore you away, dulled your edges, leached the color from your face, and flattened you out like river rocks." (p. 131)
"'The hell with Donna Mae,' says Harriet. 'Become an advocate for yourself.'" (p. 203)
"While the days unfold, one after the other, and the numbers all move in one direction, our lives are not linear, Harriet. We are the sum of moments and reflections, actions and decisions, triumphs, failures, and yearnings, all of it held together, inexplicably, miraculously, really, by memory and association." (p. 293)