Happy publication day!
Friends, you're going to want to get your hands on a copy of The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett.
This book is heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting--simply one of the best books I have read this year.
It's a very simple premise: Eudora Honeysett, a cranky octogenarian, is quite done with living, thank you very much. It's not that she is in terrible health at the moment, but she knows the older she becomes the worse everything will get. Especially as she is alone in the world with the exception of her similarly cranky cat, Montgomery. But she is not afraid of death: wanting to meet it on her own terms, by her own choice, she makes an appointment with a Swiss euthanasia clinic for the very near future. As the plot progresses, we, like Eudora, await the decision of the clinic's founding doctor.
But then she meets her irrepressible 10-year-old neighbor, Rose, and recently widowed Stanley and her whole outlook begins to change.
Eudora's story unfolds in two timelines: present day and her heartbreaking past, beginning when her father leaves for WWII. You read with dread as Lyons reveals the layers of what made Eudora such a curmudgeon, because you know what's coming, but like the main character, you don't want to face it. But you'll entirely understand why she is the way she is. And that final emotional climax is well worth the price of admission.
I loved this book from start to finish. The world could use a few more Eudora Honeysetts (the scene in which she dresses down the condescending doctor is a standout), and it could use more Roses and Stanleys as well. The overall messages of finding comfort and bravery when facing the topic of death as well as a gentle reminder to fight ageism are good ones. And a plot revolving around an elderly protagonist rather than flighty twenty-somethings was a welcome change.
Thank you to William Morrow through the Book Club Girls for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC. I'll definitely be looking for more of the authors books now that I have discovered her.