May Sarton (1912–1995)

I think I was expecting more from this book after hearing it so praised years ago by Thomas (Hogglestock blog/The Readers podcast).

The best parts, for me, were those that recreated a lost world of childhood innocence, (even if it is a very privileged childhood), and the sections on aging, death, and grief.

The book is a fictionalized portrait of Anne Longfellow Thorp (here named Jane Reid), the niece of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (in the novel called Benjamin Trueblood).

The novel is also about novel-writing. We watch its narrator, Cam (a Sarton stand-in) struggles to create a fictional biography of a woman who influenced her life profoundly.

Parts of the book are very affecting, especially the parts focused on childhood and aging, life's bookends. It was the 'earnest' middle years section which sometimes frustrated me, as well as the overall writing style (ponderous? thorough?) : I could sometimes see/feel the 'wheels turning.'

Sometimes I had to remind myself that this book was published in the 80s. It feels much older.… (more)

***NO SPOILERS***

So many literary- and realistic fictions are on the same themes (e.g., domestic strife; coming-of-age), so I appreciate that author May Sarton did something so different: told a simple story from the point of view of a nursing-home resident. The only other book I've read written from this viewpoint is the fantastic [book:Water for Elephants|43641], and it's one of the many things that makes that book easy to like.

As We Are Now, however, doesn't have the sweep of Water for Elephants. Seventy-six-year-old Caro Spencer relates her experience after her eighty-year-old brother, John, dumps her in a nursing home. As is to be expected, it's a depressing existence, not helped by the fact that Caro will never be released so is just waiting to die. Obviously the book will depress many readers, but many others may feel as I did: that As We Are Now is a kind of meditation on aging and eventual death.

This story could easily be boring, but Sarton filled the pages with several eventful happenings. A dramatic twist at the end doesn't quite square with all that came before, or with Caro herself, as headstrong as she is. This is a small flaw, though (and one that may not bother many readers), in a work that's important, particularly for those living a privileged, charmed life.… (more)