The Beginner's Goodbye

There was one novel among the used books I purchased in March.  It's fitting that it was written by Anne Tyler because I often find her books by accident.  I don't absolutely love everything I've read by Tyler, but her Back When We Were Grownups is an all-time favorite of mine and a book I return to again and again, which I wrote about here.

Tyler's book I found for $3 in California is titled The Beginner's Goodbye.  The book is a hard cover, published in 2012.  Did the reader not like the book enough to keep it?  Was it a gift, or did they just run out of room on the shelf?  By the time I've made the decision to buy a book, especially a hard cover, I am fairly certain that it's one I will keep for a good long while.

The Beginner's Goodbye is a keeper.  The book jacket gives away more of the story than I think necessary.  The opening line of the book is really all you need to know:  "The strangest thing about my wife's return from the dead was how other people reacted."  That line tells you that the story is about a man whose wife dies and then comes back to visit.  And the strangest thing about that is other people's reactions?  I either want to read that story or I don't.  I did and I'm glad that's the way I decided to go.

Last fall I became increasingly uncomfortable with the topic of death.  Within a short time span three women I know lost their husbands.  Too close for comfort.  Too hard to think about, yet too real to be ignored.  I needed to find a way to think about the topic without dissolving into a mass of panic.

This book is fiction, and maybe that's why it helped.  Tyler created characters that are quirky and feel real to me.  If I met any one of them in real life, I'd like to get to know them.  They don't say everything the right way, and sometimes feelings are hurt.  They do things that others may not understand, and they may not be able to explain themselves.  Life is messy.  It follows that death is, too.

I like the idea of making a mistake and getting a second chance.  I'd like to think of myself as a  beginner, knowing I have time to learn how to do it better.