From the Bookshelf of MxCC READS!…

The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying

Nina Riggs

Start date: November 1, 2020

Finish date: November 15, 2020

Discussion: November 2020 selection

Discussion leader: Adam Floridia

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No topics in November 2020 selection yet. Start one now »

What Members Thought

Nov 16, 2020 Adam Floridia rated it really liked it

Shelves: being-a-human

Not at all what I expected--so much better.

I did hope to enjoy this book, thinking that it would be filled with profound ruminations on both life and death and, perhaps, even instructions on how to live in the moment, be mindful, and appreciate life. I expected sage advice and didactic platitudes--conclusions and lessons clearly and explicitly expressed.

Instead, Riggs just writes about her life. (I suppose, DUH, that's what a memoir is.) All conclusions and lessons to be drawn are left complet Not at all what I expected--so much better.

I did hope to enjoy this book, thinking that it would be filled with profound ruminations on both life and death and, perhaps, even instructions on how to live in the moment, be mindful, and appreciate life. I expected sage advice and didactic platitudes--conclusions and lessons clearly and explicitly expressed.

Instead, Riggs just writes about her life. (I suppose, DUH, that's what a memoir is.) All conclusions and lessons to be drawn are left completely up to the reader; there is nothing didactic. I think that makes the book all the more powerful and poignant. While reading, it is hard not to put yourself in Riggs' shoes and imagine having a terminal diagnosis and knowing that, soon enough, you will leave your wife/kids/family behind; life will go on for them, but not for you.

Rather than tell others how to live and appreciate life, Riggs shows. The book is filled with past recollections, highlighting all of those small and big moments one remembers that collectively make up her life. She shares small vignettes of her present, full of ordinary, mundane experiences--the experiences that, again, make up one's life. Reading these, I couldn't help thinking that about how she was consciously recording these moments to serve as memories for her husband and children; this is what she is leaving behind for them, and it's so beautifully sad and sadly beautiful.

Whether it is some baby chicks plucked by an osprey, an old dog being put down, or the death of a mother, Riggs weaves in how much death is a part of life--a part that most people, most days simply ignore. It is a perfect example of Montaigne's query: "Did you think you would never reach the point toward which you were constantly heading?" (qtd. in Riggs 239).

Favorite Quote:
-"I want all of it--all the things to do with living--and I want to keep them feeling messy and confusing and even sometimes boring. The carpool line and the backpacks and light that fills the room in the building where I wait while the kids take piano lessons. Dr. Cavanaugh sitting on my bedside looking me in the eyes and admitting she's scared. The sound of my extended family laughing downstairs. My chemo hair growing in suddenly in thick, wild chunks.
Light sabers cracking Christmas ornaments. A science fair project taking shape in some distant room. The drenched backyard full of runoff, and tiny, slimy, uncertain yard critters who had expected to remain buried in months of hard mud, peeking their heads out into the balmy New Year's air, asking, Wait, what?" (210). ...more

Like · see review

Group Home Bookshelf Discussions

Photos Videos

Send invite Members Polls