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A review by jmatkinson1
Rules of the Road by Ciara Geraghty
4.0
When she finds out that her friend Iris has gone missing, Dublin housewife Terry sets out to look for her. Finding out that she is planning to visit a clinic in Switzerland to end her life due to her progressive MS, Terry decides to accompany her. Which would be fine but Iris hates flying and Terry has her father in the car with her, her father who suffers from dementia. Thus begins a road trip like no other, a trip which will end Iris’s life and change Terry’s life irrevocably.
From its slightly off-putting premise, that of a terminally ill person wanting to end their life in an assisted suicide, Geraghty has produced a wildly entertaining road trip story. Often the sheer silliness of the plot makes one forget the profundity of long-term illness, both dementia and ms. That is what works so well, there is a gentle understanding of the nature of disease and the way this reflects on Terry’s life as a woman who lives for her family and her routine yet is given the opportunity to grow. A very clever book.
From its slightly off-putting premise, that of a terminally ill person wanting to end their life in an assisted suicide, Geraghty has produced a wildly entertaining road trip story. Often the sheer silliness of the plot makes one forget the profundity of long-term illness, both dementia and ms. That is what works so well, there is a gentle understanding of the nature of disease and the way this reflects on Terry’s life as a woman who lives for her family and her routine yet is given the opportunity to grow. A very clever book.