What a weird and wonderful book.
First of all, Zadoorian, although his name is Michael, must be a very wise,
old woman. As you can see from the book description, this is the story of
an old couple who escape all of the preconceptions of how they should live
their short, remaining time on this earth. It is written in the voice of
Ella, who you just have to describe as spunky.
She has cancer and in spite of it (or actually because of it),
she decides that she and her husband John, who has alzheimer's, will,
against the recommendations/advice/admonishments/threats and pleas of
their children and doctors, take their beloved Leisure Seeker RV on the
road one last time to retrace a previous journey over what is left of
Route 66.
So it's a road trip for octogenarians.
Which means all of the associated dramas and circumstances of aging
(humorous and sad) come along for the ride.
And that's why I say that Michael Zadoorian must be a wise old lady.
Writing in the voice of Ella, he gives us all of the wisdom, the humorous
and bittersweet insights of people who have lived a full life and now,
facing death, take the time to contemplate that life and savor it as it is
coming to an end.
But be aware, this is not some depressing book filled with nothing but
complaints about aging and sadness about the good old days being gone.
It is funny, bittersweet, tense and hysterical. Things happen! This
is a story that moves along and, like any good book, you keep wanting
to get back to it to see what will happen next. Very importantly,
there are no false dramas used to move things along. There are no
trumped up dark family secrets so often used to create fake tension.
The beauty of this story is the normal-ness. These are plain people
who are interesting just because we can identify so much with their
insights and lives. Their choice is actually to continue to be as
normal as they can be: to not be crammed into all of these last minute
definitions of "patient", "cancer sufferer", "old person" and the rest
of it, and try to do something that for them is quite normal: get in
the RV and take a vacation from all of that!
Best of all, at the end of the day, you love these people.
You come to wish that you could have the chance to be one of the
people they meet along the way.
Zadoorian gives you that wonderful chance.
