Our book club selection for May was The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler. I know I have mentioned my book club numerous times. It is such a wonderful group. We all read the book, we actually discuss the book and we always leave room for each member's opinion. That is what makes a great book club. It has been very rare that I haven't really enjoyed our book club book, but this one just didn't do it for me.
It was fine. That pretty much sums it up. The Beginner's Goodbye is about a man who loses his wife in an accident. Months later she appears to him and he must deal with her loss in a new way. There just wasn't a lot of meat to this story. It felt a bit rambly (what do you mean that's not a word?) to me and I was never quite sure when we were going to get past the exposition and in to the real story. There were some interesting discussion points about the loss of a spouse, but nothing truly profound. Also, we all felt we couldn't help but picture the characters much older than the ages the author lists. Everyone in the book just seemed so much older. The main character, Aaron, is said to be 36-year-old, yet I continually pictured a man in his fifties.
I bought this book on my Kindle because I could not find it in the library or in a used book store because it is a new release. Now if only I could give it away like I would with a hard copy since I know I'll never read it again. Ah...the one drawback of the Kindle.
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