At the end of last year, I saw this book everywhere and heard many good things about it, so it piqued my curiosity and I added it to my TBR, though I didn’t really know what to expect. When I finally picked it up, I ended up with a book I couldn’t put down and an ending that had me ugly crying for about ten minutes. This is a book that touched my soul deeply. To be honest, I’m still thinking about Sybil, her life, her pain, her mistakes, and her choices, and I believe this is a story I’ll remember for a long time.
“… my letters have been far more meaningful to me than anything I did with the law. The letters are the mainstay of my life, (…) the letters amount to who I am.”
The writing is creative, bold, and masterful. The entire story is told through letters sent from and to Sybil, an elderly woman who is going blind and, for the first time in her life, confronting her past and the choices she has made. With each letter, you delve deeper into her life and her character: how she conducts her relationships, how she deals with her past, and how she copes with her impending blindness.
There is one person in particular to whom she writes, and in those letters you truly see the real Sybil and her rawest emotions. You can feel the difference in her tone, her choice of words, and the sentiment; everything feels distinct. These letters, however, are never sent, and until the very end we don’t know who the person she is addressing actually is, and that is one of the things that breaks your heart into a million pieces.
“Grief (the biggest grief in the world) is like – What? What is it that happens to a person? I’ve always felt it is like a scream living inside of me.
I walk around the house or dig in the garden, or wander the grocery store, or sit at my desk and there’s a screaming inside my head. Like an air horn that warns of war.”
The way the author builds the story is remarkable, and the emotional payoff is immense, hence the ten minutes of ugly crying. What initially makes you think, “Huh, this whole book is just made up of letters…” ultimately becomes its greatest strength: by the end, you can’t imagine this intimate story being told in any other way.
For me, the art of letter writing is enchanting. There’s something about letters that deeply moves me, maybe because it’s a lost art, or because I feel nostalgic remembering my teenage years, when I wrote several letters a week to a friend, or simply because of the personal, intimate feeling a letter carries. I’m not entirely sure, but there’s something truly magical about it.
Anyway, my final recommendation is this: if you enjoy creative writing, deeply emotional stories, and a slow build-up with a powerful emotional payoff, this book might be for you. Add it to your TBR, read it, and let me know what you thought.
Geef een reactie