Der Nie Abgeschickte Liebesbrief An Harold Fry (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
3.5 stars Quotes and spoilers below.********************************************************************************************************************Quotes - memorable concepts from this book'It has been everywhere, my happiness - when my mother sang for me to dance, when my father took my hand to keep me safe - but it was such a small, plain thing that I mistook it for something ordinary and failed to see. We expect our happiness to come with a sign and bells, but it doesn't.''Sometimes, Harold, the way forward takes you by surprise. You try to force something in the familiar direction and discover that what it needs is to move in a different dimension. The way forward is not forward, but off to one side, in a place you have not noticed before.'Love both of those thoughts.Spoiler/questionWonder how many, like me, were not surprised by the twist at the end. I had suspicions about the 'typing nun' and Queenie's writing all along. Having absolutely LOVED reading "the unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry" I was both very excited and worried to start reading "The Love song of Queenie Hennessy". Excited, because Harold Fry just stole my heart and so anything linked to him just has to be good. But worried because sequels tend to never reach the same level as the original book. I was right to be excited. And very wrong to be worried. Because "the love song of queenie hennessy" is no where near a sequel to the Harold Fry novel, but rather a companion-book. It's Harold's pilgrimage told from Queenie Hennessy's perspective and point of view. As Queenie spends her days in the hospice, too ill to do anything but reflect on her life and count her days, the postcard from Harold Fry stating he's walking all the way from south England to the north to meet her and if she could please wait for him is the cue she needed. Harold Fry's journey across the country is the starting point for Queenie Hennessy's journey throughout her own life. We read about what happened to her, what choices she made and why and get the other side of the story once told by Harold Fry. Thanks to Rachel Joyce's great writing skills and eye for detail, this book is not only a treasure on its own, but also in perfect harmony with Harold's story.Who's afraid that the setting of the book - a hospice for the terminally ill - may imply a limiting border to the story, will be proven wrong. Apart from Queenie's memories that go far beyond the hospice's walls, we also meet a number of characters inside the hospice, tackling the subject of how you handle being terminally ill and what that does to a person. All in a very light and humorous way. Because if this book is one thing, apart from just plain beautiful, touching and emotional, it's humorous. Queenie Hennessy is one witty lady whose expressions just made me laugh out loud more than once. The beautiful illustrations are the cherry on the cake.A wonderful companion-book to Harold Fry. Different, but equally wonderful.***"It's a shame short men don't wear heels; it would save the world a lot of trouble" (p. 43)***".. all in all, I'd heard people do a lot of things with words. I'd heard them not say what they meant and I'd seen them not do what they said, but I'd never met a person who could speak so simply and still convey so much " (p. 54)***"I don't know why some of these (terrible) memories must remain so crystal clear while other things I would like to remember are completely unavailable. If only memory were a library with everything stored where it should be. If only you could walk to the desk and say to the assistant "I'd like to return the painful memories of David Fry and take out some happier ones, please". And the assistant would say, Certainly ma'am, we have all those, under F for fishing and P for Picknicking" (p. 59)***(about the death-counselor in the hospice)"She was dressed head to toe in purple. Purple headscarf, purple dress, purple cardigan, purple shoes. The woman looks like one giant bruise, said Mr. Henderson" (p. 146)***(when one of the old people started tweeting on twitter about Fry's pilgrimage)"I gather FInty has a thousand followers. What do you do with a thousand followers? I had a wife and a best friend, that's all I needed" (p. 245)
What do You think about Der Nie Abgeschickte Liebesbrief An Harold Fry (2014)?
A delightful story, every bit as good as the previous Harold Fry book.
—Ivysaur
Read as part of the 2015 Reading Challenge - A Female Author
—toni
