The Household Guide to Dying [Hardcover]

Debra Adelaide (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0670068640 | ISBN-13: 978-0670068647

When Delia Bennet author and domestic advice columnist is diagnosed with cancer, she knows it's time to get her house in order. Fresh, witty, deeply moving and a celebration of love, family and that place we call home this unforgettable story will surprise and delight the reader until the very last page.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Domestic advice columnist Delia is terminally ill, but she has a few loose ends she'd like to wrap up before cancer takes her from her husband and two daughters in Australian novelist Adelaide's ho-hum latest. Though Delia makes lists that encompass everything from the morning routine to planning her daughters' weddings, hoping to control what will come after she is gone, much of what is on her mind is her distant past in the small town of Amethyst, where she lived after she left home at 17 to raise her firstborn. Adelaide metes that portion out slowly, and readers will have figured out the twists long before she gets there. What Delia faces and remembers about her time in Amethyst leaves her better able to face gracefully her own imminent departure, which she chronicles in an advice book. That project leads to some off-kilter scenes (such as Delia observing an autopsy and casket shopping), and though the book ends sweetly, Delia's distant narrative tone and the erratic time line rob the tale of emotional impact. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 371 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Canada (April 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670068640
• ISBN-13: 978-0670068647
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,842,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ridiculous, bizarre, and poignant, March 6, 2009

By 

An Educated Consumer (Floral Park, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Household Guide to Dying (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Not a stranger to loss, having been thru sudden, long term illness, and tragic deaths, I chose this book to open my heart and enhance my understanding. It is a novel of a household guide writer's final days facing the end as she succumbs to a losing battle with cancer.
The book goes from the ridiculous...Delia's household books and advice for example. To the...
Bizarre and I might add craziness...of watching a live (no pun intended) autopsy; witnessing the extraction of a loved one's heart; getting a casket made of rough hewn and cratelike materials to place on her porch for what seems like months before her 'passing' so her young daughters can decorate with drawings etc, her husband too; making blood sausage out of her own blood to leave for her unwitting family to devour after she is gone to have a part of her within them etc.
To the poignant...the search for something...closure, acceptance, reassurance, reconnection to her lost son; and the ultimate end when the focus becomes more real and understandable.
Her husband, Archie, is a prince of a man, and her children, well, they behave like children.
While I will not most likely forget this book, I would not have chosen it had I known its contents.
The final pages did reinforce my own personal convictions...to try to live life to its fullest, appreciate the smallest and most valuable blessings and embrace the ones I love and care for.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An endearing book, March 10, 2009

By 

G. Messersmith "calliopemuse" (Tennessee) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Household Guide to Dying (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Delia Bennett is dying of cancer. She is a daughter, wife, mother, writer, domestic goddess, and an advice columnist. We see the world through her eyes as she accepts the end. She is even writing a manual entitled, "The Household Guide to Dying." She struggles with how to say goodbye to everyone and what she can leave behind for them.

Delia does not feel sorry for herself, in fact, she keeps up her every day life and goes on as though nothing unusual is happening to her and/or her family. She continues to write her advice column which we get to read from the people who write to her and her responses. We get to follow along as she writes her last book about dying. Delia is a very likeable and unusual protagonist.

Since Delia is a bibliophile; therefore, there are many literary references in this book. Many Jane Austen references are made and the death poet, John Donne, has his fair share. This book is wonderfully well written and should touch every reader in one way or another. Even if it's not the way you would want to go out of this world, you will be abel to appreciate it as Delia's way. This is a very touching and moving book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Tough to get into, and doesn't really break much new ground, June 11, 2009

By 

R. Murphy (Eastern U.S.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Household Guide to Dying (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Ultimately, I think this author just wasn't for me. I felt like she spent such an exhaustive time detailing small incidents and moments that I began to wonder if she was just light on plot. I'm all for a solid chronicle, but good lord this was extreme. I didn't find Delia (the main character) very interesting, and at times she came off a bit wooden, and I could see the puppet-strings a bit too much. A book like this, focusing on a dying protaganist, relies so heavily on that character being interesting, that I felt like it just tanked the entire book for Delia to be so bland.