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Book Review Pro | Karen Pool
Book Review Pro | Karen Pool
Author : Susan Meissner
Genre : Historical Fiction
It’s not often I read a book where Death is a character. The story begins at the beginning of World War I when the Spanish flu erupts on the scene, eventually killing tens of thousands of people. Thomas Bright has just moved with his wife, Pauline and his three daughters to Philadelphia so he can assist his Uncle Fred with his funeral home business. They have lost their little baby boy, Henry, a few months earlier. The story is told through the eyes of Pauline, and their daughters, Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa as the war and the flu take their toll on loved ones and friends. A mysterious baby boy is found and that story resolves itself in a surprising way in the end, as does love for two of the sisters. A thought-provoking and delightful read.
“I wanted to say, ‘It’s the strangest thing. I’m not afraid of Death anymore. Ever since Henry died, Death is not the phantom that it used to be. It is more like a quiet friend. I thought coming to Uncle Fred’s funeral home would change all that, and Death would go back to being what it was before. If anything, Death is more my friend than ever.’ I wanted to ask my mother what is wrong with me. I wanted her to say, ‘Your child died and your mother’s heart is healing the best way it can.'”
“Death is not our foe. There is not foe. There is only the stunningly fragile human body, a holy creation capable of loving with such astonishing strength but which is weak to the curses of a fallen world. It is the frailty of flesh and blood that causes us to succumb to forces greater than ourselves. Death is appointed merely to close the door to our suffering and open wide the gate to Paradise. If we were made of stone or iron, we would be impervious to disease and injury and disaster, but then we could not give love and receive love, could we?”
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