Miró, Miró, On The Wall, that's punny! This story was just that. A story of reflection and grief. Usually, it's difficult for me to be deeply involved with a grief story, but this one was unique. It's the story of Claire and how she lost her son to the Vietnam War. I like how the story starts in a low tempo and rises to a loud crescendo. The reader does not know at first why Claire has these thoughts of resignation and memories of another time. This story does not have much action. Basically Claire is getting ready to host her group of friends that are coming over. This group consist of women that have also lost their own sons to war. The women arrive and one of them, Marcia, tells of the of the man that she witnessed in a tightrope line between the world trade center skyscrapers (Which reminds!!! I haven't talked about the tightrope man in the prologue of the book, silly me!!! I'll have to do that soon) Anyway, so Marcia tells the group how she felt as if that man in the tightrope line was her dead son visiting her. She didn't stay to see if the guy fell from the tightrope because that would pain her immensely.
Allow me to backtrack! Claire loves this group of women, but is apprenhesive to have them in her house because she didn't tell them she's wealthy, and she feels like it's a sharp contrast to have their group meeting in her place when last week the meeting took place in Gloria's home, which was located in one of NYC's most poor and criminal-filled neighborhoods. Claire appreciates Gloria...a lot! I mean from all of her other friends, she is more fond of Gloria than anyone else. If you read it, you'll understand. Yeah, so the chain of thoughts start with that; Claire thinking of of the social contrast between her new friends and her, then it goes to her son.
Her heart-ache is all over the pages. She recalls how her son, Joshua learned to play Chopin on the piano at the age of 8. Over and over again, she reads Joshua's letters from Vietnam, and regrets not pleading him to stay, to not serve, but she didn't, she let him go, and in herself she felt like she has already lost him as he boarded the plane.
This paragraph in the book made me blink with the reality of the Vietnam War.
Claire is a strong woman, and so is her husband, who has been serene and supportive of her. I think the reason why she might be fond of Gloria, may be that Gloria is so kind and thus vulnerable. Maybe Claire has this need to protect.
I also found it interesting how she dislikes the man in the tightrope. The reason being that the man in the tightrope is playing with his life. She kind of resents that he is pretty much putting his life away for nothing...but is it really nothing? No, the tightrope man means much more, but I'll save that for another post.
I just realized that, as I'm writing this post, that I read this story during Sunday and Monday (Memorial Day!) WOW. What a coincidence.
This is a mature story, and a story of grief. I enjoyed reading it, surprisingly enough. I think it must be due to it's realness, and the thoughts of Claire, which were so intimate. It doesn't have that much action, but that's what gives it the placid mood of grief. Not a recent uncontrallable grief, but one that has surpassed a storm, and is now in the middle of normalcy and another world, yet normalcy may not be achievable, for I believe Claire will never be the same. Her loss is just too great.
Serge
Allow me to backtrack! Claire loves this group of women, but is apprenhesive to have them in her house because she didn't tell them she's wealthy, and she feels like it's a sharp contrast to have their group meeting in her place when last week the meeting took place in Gloria's home, which was located in one of NYC's most poor and criminal-filled neighborhoods. Claire appreciates Gloria...a lot! I mean from all of her other friends, she is more fond of Gloria than anyone else. If you read it, you'll understand. Yeah, so the chain of thoughts start with that; Claire thinking of of the social contrast between her new friends and her, then it goes to her son.
Her heart-ache is all over the pages. She recalls how her son, Joshua learned to play Chopin on the piano at the age of 8. Over and over again, she reads Joshua's letters from Vietnam, and regrets not pleading him to stay, to not serve, but she didn't, she let him go, and in herself she felt like she has already lost him as he boarded the plane.
This paragraph in the book made me blink with the reality of the Vietnam War.
"How is it being dead, son, and would I like it?...Give me back his body, Mr. Nixon, and we will not quarrel. Take this corpse, all fifty-two years of it, swap it; I won't regret it. I won't complain. Just give him back to us all sewn up and handsome."The reader gets to know Joshua through his mother. We find out how he was obsess with technology and how lucky he felt at being able to work with computers(not the ones we have today). Pretty much he was a genius...a kind one.
Claire is a strong woman, and so is her husband, who has been serene and supportive of her. I think the reason why she might be fond of Gloria, may be that Gloria is so kind and thus vulnerable. Maybe Claire has this need to protect.
I also found it interesting how she dislikes the man in the tightrope. The reason being that the man in the tightrope is playing with his life. She kind of resents that he is pretty much putting his life away for nothing...but is it really nothing? No, the tightrope man means much more, but I'll save that for another post.
I just realized that, as I'm writing this post, that I read this story during Sunday and Monday (Memorial Day!) WOW. What a coincidence.
This is a mature story, and a story of grief. I enjoyed reading it, surprisingly enough. I think it must be due to it's realness, and the thoughts of Claire, which were so intimate. It doesn't have that much action, but that's what gives it the placid mood of grief. Not a recent uncontrallable grief, but one that has surpassed a storm, and is now in the middle of normalcy and another world, yet normalcy may not be achievable, for I believe Claire will never be the same. Her loss is just too great.
Serge
No comments:
Post a Comment