Sometimes you just have to feel a book and not over analyze it. Sure it’s not perfect and parts may be predictable or contrived, but there is so much more that makes How to Walk Away a great read. It is such an inspirational read with messages of hope, perseverance and love.
The first sentence had me hooked and I couldn’t put the book down after that:
The biggest irony about that night is that I was always scared to fly.
What followed confirmed that I was engaged and intrigued:
Always. Ever since I was old enough to think about it. It seemed counterintuitive. Even a little arrogant. Why go up when gravity clearly wanted us to stay down?
Margaret has a great life going for her — she almost has her dream job and strongly suspects her boyfriend Chip is going to propose tonight. He wants to take her for a ride in a Cessna plane - he’s very close to being certified and has already completed twice the amount of required hours of training. Margaret has a severe fear of flying but she finally relents:
We were beginning our lives. Things were falling into place. And here, at the airfield, I didn’t want to be the only thing that didn’t.
What happens next is that her whole world changes in the “blink of an eye” and it may never be the same.
They say your life flashes before your eyes, but it wasn’t my life as I’d lived it that I saw. It was the life I’d been waiting for.
...in a dystopic world, one so different that even all the colors were in a minor key, more like a sour, washed-out old photograph than anything real. It looked that way, and it felt that way, too. I couldn’t imagine the future, and I couldn’t—wouldn’t—even think about the past.
How would you cope? I know I would be shocked and angry. Who wouldn’t be if their perfect future was snatched away in a second?
I felt suddenly coated with anger like I’d been dunked in it.
We spend a lot of time in Margaret’s inner world as she tries to make her way through a minefield of emotions. At first, she has trouble feeling anything at all and then realizes how conflicted she is about wanting to understand what has happened to her. Center does a remarkable job in allowing us to witness Margaret’s thought process and feelings throughout the story. In her denial, she experiences depersonalization and self-alienation:
... that’s how everything I said or did or thought felt now. Flat, and colorless, and altered.
It was like my emotions had gone offline. It was like I wasn’t fully there. Things were happening around and to me... but it was like I was witnessing it rather than experiencing it. I was across the room, watching somebody else’s life unfold, and not even fully paying attention.
Actually I think Margaret’s feelings follow the Kubler-Ross stages of grief — Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. Of course it isn’t always so neatly linear and standardized but this model has withstood the test of time (first introduced in 1969).
How to Walk Away is a brilliant testament to courage and determination. For the first two weeks, Margaret is at a crossroads — does she curl up in a ball and withdraw from life or does she fight the devastating emotions she feels and do all she can to overcome her situation?
We cannot help but sympathize with and root for Margaret. Her parents are supportive though her mother is a little too blunt at times:
My mom had a remarkable talent for making things worse. She could always find the downside. And she had no filter, so once she found it, everybody else had to find it, too.
Her sister Kit, estranged from the family for three years, comes to help Margaret deal with the challenges and obstacles she now faces.
This is a very special book that will make you feel a range of emotions. The writing is great and clever without any “filler.”
They say everybody loses time in the ICU. It’s basically Vegas in there, minus the showgirls and slot machines. No windows.
It was just like a long, strange dream. With vomiting.
Some of the lines are so inspirational that it is tempting to write down these nuggets of wisdom to remember them:
Our struggles lead us to our strengths.
When you don’t know what to do for yourself, do something for someone else.
You can’t fix everything. Not even close. But you can look for reasons to be grateful.
No comments:
Post a Comment