it is hard work when something stirs up all your emotions like that.The language itself wouldnt bother me there are only a few words i havnt been known to utterunder my breath occasionally - and perhaps i havnt given him a fair chance maybe he has changed since the office and that embarassing attempt to be a compare.
I just finished a book that was one of those rare ones that i didnt want to read too fast because i didnt want it to end -its the second like that, by the same author - the first was "the keeper of lost things," this one was "the wisdom of Sally red shoes" by Ruth Hogan - both tackled issues of dying, but also grief, loneliness and isolation due to being "different" as well -
They start with random things people do -that perhaps are so every day we wouldnt think to do them - the keeper of lost things is an old man who literally keeps the most random items he finds discarded but wants to restore them too their former owners - and so the stories behing the lost things emerge and more characters are introduced - The second starts with woman who has no grave for her son so looks after the graves of other children and has given them stories and characters - then meets Sally red shoes who is a feisty confused old lady that feeds the crows - but at the same time as the sad story lines the characters involve some eccentrics that can be very funny -people you can aspire to be (not because they are famous or successful but because they are comfortable in their own skin) they get you thinking about your own life and grief in a more positive way - it isnt a gloomy read at all really there are sad parts though of course.
So having finished this morning i then went on to the about the author section - and it turns out she wrote the first one to keep herself occupied while undergoing chemo herself. so i guess her awareness of all of our mortality is part of what makes them such engaging books that maybe some-one without that experience couldnt quite do in the same way.