So Lucky, Nicola Griffith, Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2018, 178 pp
This novel was one of the books I picked up at Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor during my vacation in Michigan. I felt so lucky to find it there because it had just been published and my library didn't have it yet.
It is the powerful story of a successful happy woman whose life turned on her in one week. Her wife of many years asks for a divorce and she is presented with a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. Mara, at the time had thought she had been happily married for 14 years. She was a high level martial artist and the head of a multimillion-dollar AIDS foundation she had been instrumental in building. She was not a victim and then she was.
Over the course of the book, Mara comes to grips with her condition and learns how to adapt her fighting spirit to the hand she has been dealt. It is both heartbreaking and inspiring, also something of a psychological thriller because Mara is fearless and gets herself into plenty of danger. Most of all it is the way Nicola Griffith writes about the gritty daily details that brought this reader to an awareness of what life is really like for a handicapped person in our society. I think it would also bring hope and empowerment to individuals who are disabled or chronically ill.
I suppose the book falls into the category of what these days is called auto-fiction. The author was a self-defense instructor diagnosed with MS who has reinvented herself into a full-time award winning writer. She is the author of one of my favorite books ever, the amazing Hild. She has written seven novels and now holds a PhD in Humanities. She is an unrelenting champion of women.
The bottom line is that she is a strong writer and creator of fierce female characters. I recommend So Lucky to everyone without reservation.
(So Lucky is available in paperback by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)
I haven't seen this book in stores. Sounds empowering.
ReplyDeleteI don't know where you shop for books, but it is definitely available on line from the usual places in paperback and ebook and in indie stores with a strong literary list. It is quite empowering without condescending to anyone. It came out in paperback, no hardcover.
DeleteI visit Amazon all the time. That's how I know what books are out. That's mostly where I get my ebooks, which is the format I read the most nowadays. I also keep up with ARCs available through Netgalley. Also, Google Play and occasionally Apple Store.
DeleteOK, you find out about and get your books mostly online. That is probably how most people find books these days. That is why I suggested you look for it online.
DeleteAnd hopefully you find out about books from me the way I find out about movies from you-:)
DeleteOk autofiction = fictionalized autobiography I get it. Ohh MS is terrible; this book sounds helpful to those who have it and educational to others about it. Someday I'll get to Hild !!
ReplyDeleteI know Hild is long and takes a while to read. I hope you find it good when you do.
DeleteThanks for sharing this novel and author with your blog readers. I haven'y heard of either the author or the novel before. I enjoy reading books that feature people with disabilities reinventing themselves.
ReplyDeleteHappy to share! I hope you get a chance to read it.
DeleteI had not heard of this book, so once again you have broadened my reading horizons! It does sound quite engrossing.
ReplyDeleteIt was so engrossing. I read it in two days. In addition to everything else it is a page turner.
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