If you have read "The Other Hand" by Chris Cleave, I'm about halfway through at this point. It was published under another title in North America. The main character is a Nigerian girl named Little Bee, and I have the sneaking suspicion Oprah would have chosen this as a book club book, if she even still does that anymore.
Early on, Little Bee talks about scars as being a good thing not a bad thing because to have a scar means that you healed. If you're dead, the wound didn't heal, ergo, no scar. I like this idea. Somewhere I saw a saying that said "a scar is a tattoo with a story", and I've held onto that idea. I like Little Bee's happy aspect to the scar, that it means you triumphed over something, that it didn't get you, that you beat the odds, that you lived to see another day.
Sarah says about Lawrence that "to stay in the game, you have to be compassionate. One has to acknowledge a certain right-to-life of the other". What strikes me is her suggestion that having an affair is a game with protocols. It's the acknowledgment that what they share isn't complete.
I don't think there's anything wrong with her not feeling sad or upset about her husband's death. I'm also not surprised about his depression. She showed more courage than he did, and I can't think of many people, male or female, who would have been able to live with the daily reminder that they were the lesser of the pair. Their marriage was long over. They were going through the motions. He was dead inside long before he actually died. She knew it was a mistake from the beginning. Cold-hearted bitch? Maybe. But it's a survival thing. His dying should be considered an opportunity for a new start, and that's where the real challenge will lie - not in seeing the scars as positive reminders, not in trying not to lean too heavily on Lawrence for support, but in rebuilding herself. By herself.
Those of you who have read this book - am I on the right wavelength? I guess the back half of the book will tell.
No comments:
Post a Comment