Review of Emily Alone: A Novel

Emily Alone: A Novel  by Stewart O'Nan

 

This is an old fashioned novel without fancy flashbacks or varying points of view, common to a lot of contemporary fiction.  The author has managed to tell the story of an elderly woman from an all knowing perspective.  It makes you realize how infrequently any writer, much less a male,  has taken  on the task of understanding an older woman, especially one like Emily who is not rich, powerful, or famous.  She is a very ordinary upper middle class woman who has, in the last few years become a widow, and lost all but one of her friends.  Her two grown children are typically involved with their own lives and distant.  She remains in her own home, with her aging dog. 

 

It sounds like a boring book, but you soon are hooked into the suspense of everyday life for an older person (and here I add my own thought—actually the  real issue is disability not age—there are young people with mobility issues for example, and old people without them).  Will Emily or her dog die or face some painful accident?  The book explores the issues that anyone who lives long enough will face:  loneliness, the need to find meaning and purpose in life when so much has been lost, and coming to grips with the death for oneself and those we love.

 

Emily Alone, is not a thriller but it is suspenseful.  It's a novel worth reading and thinking about