Savannah, it turns out, is catatonic, and before the suicide attempt had completely assumed the identity of a dead friend-the implication being that she couldn't stand being a Wingo anymore. When he hears that his fierce, beautiful twin sister Savannah, a well-known New York poet, has once again attempted suicide, he escapes his present emasculation by flying north to meet Savannah's comely psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein. Tom Wingo is an unemployed South Carolinian football coach whose internist wife is having an affair with a pompous cardiac man. Reading Harold Fry first will allow this deeply emotional novel to resonate more fully.Ī flabby, fervid melodrama of a high-strung Southern family from Conroy ( The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline), whose penchant for overwriting once again obscures a genuine talent. Any pathos is mostly subsumed by wry humor and clarity regarding life’s foibles, the story ending with a beautiful twist reminding us we all journey through life as lonely, sometimes-inarticulate pilgrims. In Queenie’s meditative memories-"There is a huge story ahead of me, and the truth is so complicated"-her remembrance of unrequited love is shared with a sometimes-funny, sometimes-sad reflection on life’s bitter end.
"I had promised myself that I would be a bridge between you and your son, and I was out of my depth." David committed suicide.
"I loved your voice, your walk, your marriage, your hands, your zigzag socks.for God’s sake, everything about you." Harold had a brilliant son, David, a troubled young man-"For all his selfishness, he was as astute as a knife"-whom Queenie attempted to help. Decades prior, when the two worked together, Queenie fell in love with Harold but never revealed her feelings. What follows is a history of their fractured friendship, with her confession as the narrative’s heart. He intends to walk from Kingsbridge, 600 miles away. Cancer has destroyed her throat and jaw, and now she awaits death among "rejects, you might say.and it was a relief, a blessed relief." Word comes that a friend, Harold Fry, has learned of her illness. Bernadine’s Hospice in northeast England. Joyce ( Perfect, 2014, etc.) offers an introspective follow-up to her 2012 breakout debut, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.
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