Read this book with a large box of tissues! I cried throughout the whole thing. Pack Up the Moon ©2021 is written by Kristan Higgins, a New York Times best-selling author whose novels I had never read. Totally unfamiliar with even her genre, I googled it and learned per wikipedia that Kristin Higgins is recognized for "humorous contemporary romance".
Per her link among the NY Times best selling authors she describes herself thus:
The proud descendant of a butcher and a laundress, Kristan lives in Connecticut with her heroic firefighter husband. They own several badly behaved pets and are often visited by their entertaining and long-lashed children.
Lauren also had been writing letters to her deceased father, who died five to eight years prior to her composing letters to him, giving her thoughts, fears, and hopes as the time of her own end of life approaches. As the book progresses Lauren's letters are presented in backward order with chapter headings such as "Eight days left"..."Twenty-five months left"... "Fifty-seven months left", time durations unbeknownst to her. Chapter 1 of the book is Lauren's and opens with
LAUREN – Eight days left, February 14th :Dear Dad, I'm dying, my husband is go to be a widower, and this has been the most wonderful year of my life. How's that for surprising?
Joshua receives letters from his wife that she had written prior to her death, instructing a friend to give to him, one a month for the year after her death. It is so touching how she thinks ahead to try devise a plan to help her husband cope with his loss of her, physically. Each letter suggests something to help him continue his life without her, while letting him feel close to her through these monthly doses of connection. In these letters she expresses her love for him and gives him assignments that are wise, poignant, challenging, stretching. The outcomes can be humorous, seemingly disastrous, wildly successful, but in each a case well worth pursuing. I could name them but they are best discovered in the timing and wording of Kristan Higgins. No spoilers divulged here!
The novel has great narrative and storytelling beyond the letters and has humorous episodes interspersed. Pack Up the Moon is not just sad at the ending like Love Story or Romeo and Juliet. It tugs at your heartstrings throughout the entire book both with joy and melancholy. Far from being the Harlequin type of hormone-driven romance, it instead epitomizes deep-caring, uplifting love. People often need to use tissues at a wedding, not because it is sad, but because it speaks of something rich, enduring, timeless. I wondered about the book title. I associated it with the movie It's A Wonderful Life when George Bailey first meets Mary, and they are gazing at the moon in the following YouTube clip, I'll give you the moon, Mary. I guess in the case of Joshua and Lauren, the moon must be packed up "to go".
How should I rate Pack Up the Moon? On Amazon so far, 1,003 readers have rated it an average of 4.7 stars. I picked it up from the library, opened it, and was grabbed by the opening chapter. I read it straight through until the wee hours of the morning, pausing to blow my nose and wipe my blurry eyes so I could read on. Its audience may not be wide, but it is intense for those who enjoy books full of in-depth characters and succinctly described human emotions. Perhaps some would classify it as chick lit, books' counterpart of movies' chick flicks, but I think that pigeonholing it that way does it a disservice. Pack Up the Moon is an inspirational, glass half-full example of how to live life to the fullest allowed. True, it is most likely not everyone's cup of tea, and so I give it four stars, despite the evidence of my marathon reading of the novel.
★★★★☆ Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience
No comments:
Post a Comment