Publisher : Tantor Media
Publication Date : 2010 03 08
>> Lovely Thoughtful And Flowing
This is a sensational memoir While predicated on her mother s decision to end her life after a prolonged and debilitating bout with Parkinson s Zoe Carter draws a portrait of her family while transitioning back and forth to the issue at hand of letting a loved one die on their own terms
While this book deals with an issue that has gained a certain notoriority in recent years as we see a spike in the number of aging americans plagued by all sorts of physical problems Carter s account puts it out there on a highly personal level and gave me a lot to think about I loved her description of meeting with a zealous rep of the Hemlock Society and a brief encounter with a psychiatrist who summarily supplied a prescription for Seconal with instructions on how to use it to accomplish the end result Her transitions to her past and family history were as flawless and as natural as I have ever seen She made me feel as if I knew her family and was somehow invested in the process of this planned death
Her writing was descriptive without being wordy I could see her parents without pictures and the family home on Ordway Street in DC seemed so vivid that I wondered if I had driven by it in the past
I d recommend this to anyone interested in assisted suicide or anyone interested in a well written memoir It s a great page turner and I whipped through this book without hesitation
>> A brave and important memoir
Imperfect Endings A Daughters Tale of Life and Death by Zoe Fitzgerald Carter is a brave and important memoir on many levels It s a remarkable story about Zoe the care giver s journey as a daughter wife and mother and a tribute to the joys and sorrows of her parents and two sisters It also highlights the moral and practical dilemmas around Margaret her mother s desire for an assisted suicide with her daughters present Her mother said she was tired of living with Parkinson s disease and did not want to go where the illness was taking her
As Zoe the good daughter and her two older sisters negotiate their mother s choice old animosities and alliances are stirred up Also memories of their now deceased father s alcoholism and philandering and their mother s strength beauty and co dependence
Zoe s poetic writing captures the agony of ambivalence Disapproving of her mother s determination to die yet wanting to support her Understanding she s in pain yet wanting her around Zoe confesses I ve come to view this constant inexplicable tenderness in my back as a physical manifestation of my mother I ve been hauling her around for so long it feels like a part of me an extra limb so familiar I barely notice it
When Zoe is unable to convince her mother to abandon her plans she supports her as best she can by helping her explore different suicide methods such as a lethal dose of drugs from a psychiatrist meeting a representative from the Hemlock Society and refusing food and water
Imperfect Endings is a powerful passionate and uplifting story about love and letting go
>> Imperfect Endings a perfect read
This book reveals love sustaining a family during the most dire of pressure Carter provides a graceful honest and engrossing read into the sometimes unwieldy ties that bind
