Book 45: "Death of an Ordinary Man" by Glen Duncan
Saturday, September 24th, 2011 00:02![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwakeIn spite of himself Nathan came out of suspension with a mixture of voyeuristic guilt and pride in her courage. This was beauty. He forgot everything else, even the pills on the desk. This was his daughter, in full flight. She was so like Cheryl, the way Cheryl used to be, the curiosity that wrecked and elevated her.
The story takes place on the day of Nathan's funeral. He finds himself drifting through the house, avoiding the lure of a room with a door and a white bed. which seem to be offering him the choice between sleep and going on somewhere else. As he watches the people at his wake he finds that he can read their thoughts and that getting to close to certain people and objects, catapults him back into memories of his opts or the past of his family or friends.
Nathan always thought of his wife Cheryl as being much more alive than him, but she is a cold and distant presence in the book, who never seems as real as their children Luke and Gina. Nathan remembers their youngest child who died a few years before, but he can't remember how she died, or for that matter, how he himself died.
In some ways this book reminded me of the film "The Swimmer", since to start with everything seems normal (apart from Nathan being dead, obviously), but as he relives earlier events and begins to remember, his life seems to disintegrate.
The story takes place on the day of Nathan's funeral. He finds himself drifting through the house, avoiding the lure of a room with a door and a white bed. which seem to be offering him the choice between sleep and going on somewhere else. As he watches the people at his wake he finds that he can read their thoughts and that getting to close to certain people and objects, catapults him back into memories of his opts or the past of his family or friends.
Nathan always thought of his wife Cheryl as being much more alive than him, but she is a cold and distant presence in the book, who never seems as real as their children Luke and Gina. Nathan remembers their youngest child who died a few years before, but he can't remember how she died, or for that matter, how he himself died.
In some ways this book reminded me of the film "The Swimmer", since to start with everything seems normal (apart from Nathan being dead, obviously), but as he relives earlier events and begins to remember, his life seems to disintegrate.
