Michael
A short review of a short book.
Cheri by Jo Ann Beard is a novella. I have trouble with novellas-they are too long to be short stories, too short to be novels-but Cheri is the perfect length. Each sentence, each word was perfect.
This is the story of Cheri Tremble. Cheri Tremble is a real person. She is dying in great pain of terminal cancer. Her daughters come to care for her. When she could not bear it any longer, she contacted Dr. Jack Kevorkian, to help her with an assisted suicide. He helps her. That is the story.
But Beard turns this into a part non-fiction and part fiction story. While the basic facts are real, the musings, the inner dialogues, the conversations with family and friends, and the hallucinations are all inventions. This turns this short book into a story of grief, sadness, memory, choice, and love.
I don’t want to say too much more.
For me, this was perfect, and yes, I cried.
A short review of a short book.
Cheri by Jo Ann Beard is a novella. I have trouble with novellas-they are too long to be short stories, too short to be novels-but Cheri is the perfect length. Each sentence, each word was perfect.
This is the story of Cheri Tremble. Cheri Tremble is a real person. She is dying in great pain of terminal cancer. Her daughters come to care for her. When she could not bear it any longer, she contacted Dr. Jack Kevorkian, to help her with an assisted suicide. He helps her. That is the story.
But Beard turns this into a part non-fiction and part fiction story. While the basic facts are real, the musings, the inner dialogues, the conversations with family and friends, and the hallucinations are all inventions. This turns this short book into a story of grief, sadness, memory, choice, and love.
I don’t want to say too much more.
For me, this was perfect, and yes, I cried.