Review - Love Letters of the Angels of Death by Jennifer Quist

A breathtaking literary debut, Love Letters of the Angels of Death begins as a young couple discover the remains of his mother in her mobile home. The rest of the family fall back, leaving them to reckon with the messy, unexpected death. By the time the burial is over, they understand this will always be their role: to liaise with death on behalf of people they love. They are living angels of death. All the major events in their lives - births, medical emergencies, a move to a northern boomtown, the theft of a veteran's headstone - are viewed from this ambivalent angle. In this shadowy place, their lives unfold: fleeting moments, ordinary occasions, yet on the brink of otherworldliness. In spare, heart-stopping prose, the transient joys, fears, hopes and heartbreaks of love, marriage, and parenthood are revealed through the lens of the eternal, unfolding within the course of natural life. This is a novel for everyone who has ever been happily married -- and for everyone who would like to be.

My Review:

Wow! 

Wow!

I'm not sure how to wrap my words around this review, except to say that Jennifer Quist has written a literary book that should be the text for  classes. In fact, if I were to teach a high school or college literary class, I would use this for a unit. The writing should be studied and analyzed and appreciated.

It is achingly beautiful and haunting. It is sad. I cried when I finished it and I'm crying now as I write the review. 

There were times as I read it that I wanted to cry because of Quist's use of words and how she conveyed mood and feeling and connection.

This is the kind of book that stays with you and squeezes your heart and molds a lump in your throat. It's a beautiful and unconventional love story. So much in romance, it's about the meeting and the build-up to marriage. This is different. It starts in the marriage and shares snatches of the romance and everything that came after--everyday experiences that bind people together.

I loved it.

Amazon