Should We Stay or Should We Go
A Recommendation
I’d like to very highly recommend a novel I just finished reading that I absolutely loved: Should We Stay or Should We Go by Lionel Shriver. Set in the UK, the story is about a middle-aged couple who—having been through a long and grueling decade or more of caretaking aging parents with dementia—make a pact to commit suicide together when they turn eighty. At the time, this is a long way off. But eventually, some thirty years later, that time has arrived, and the novel explores many possible ways this could go. Along the way, it takes up many of the issues of our time, always from shifting perspectives. A multi-dimensional exploration of aging, suicide, death, and many other topics. Funny at times, deeply serious, playful, imaginative, very engaging—this is a page-turner. I couldn’t put it down.
Lionel Shriver is an American who lives mostly in the UK—she is the author of many other best-selling and prize-winning novels, as well as nonfiction and journalism.
For any of you in the second half of life, I think this book will resonate profoundly. And I imagine those of you who are younger will also find it thought-provoking and well worth reading. And for everyone contemplating how things in the world might unfold in the future, this offers some possibilities. Very highly recommended!
That’s all for now….
Love to you all…..
When I was younger, I was very affirmative about my wish to die before the decay. I thought about it again after my father's death after very bad years with dementia and many other health issues. I adhered then to Exit, which helps with suicide in desperate cases. I also thought about it during my mother's last years with implacably progressing dementia, which was so heartbreaking (this time I was the main care-taker within the family), only two years ago. Now I am 61, time flies, and I don't know...
Thank you Joan,I’ve requested this book from the regional library just now!