Picture this. You are a single woman in your 40s with a pretty decent life. You have good friends, a great job, not so much happening in the romance department, but all in all, things are OK. Then … BOOM … you get the diagnosis that no one wants to hear.
You are Jennifer, the woman who has three months to live, and the protagonist in Death and Other Happy Endings, a winsome and endearing (trust me!) debut novel by Melanie Cantor.
Death and Other Happy Endings
A rare blood disease gives Jennifer just three months to live, her doctor tells her. After the shock subsides, Jennifer faces her new reality with grim determination. Receiving a fatal diagnosis makes you set priorities fast. She vows to go on with life as usual until she can’t anymore. She goes to work even though she feels ill as the days turn into weeks. Most of all, she yearns to put her emotional affairs in order by finding closure with people in her life who broke her heart. Unable to confront them face-to-face or by email, she writes each of them each a letter.
Four letters are sent: to the ex-husband, who left her for another woman while she was recovering from the last of three miscarriages; her upwardly mobile, emotionally distant sister; an ex-friend from childhood, and an ex-boyfriend who cheated on her. She nervously awaits their responses.
And waits. And waits. Will they ever respond? If so, how will they react? How will she deal with it? What will be the consequences?
Three out of four do respond, giving Jennifer the opportunity to confront them about the past with no holds barred. Hearing each character’s interpretation of their falling out is illuminating., and through the process she comes to learn more about herself.
Here is the unspoiler alert: she finds a new and improved relationship with one, has a final good riddance with a second, and enjoys a tantalizing possibility of reigniting a romance with the third, and the fourth — well, that is one of the saddest moments of the novel.
Obviously, this premise could have led to a tragic story. But quite the contrary: amid the twists and turns of the plot, the pluckiness of the protagonist, and the way her complicated relationships run their course, “Death and Other Happy Endings” is an offbeat charmer of a novel, and there is a happy ending, and the last page gave me a BIG smile.
One of my lucky readers will receive a copy of “Death and Other Happy Endings.” Please leave a comment on the Books is Wonderful Facebook page and a winner will be randomly selected. US addresses only, please.
I received a copy of “Death and Other Happy Endings” from Pamela Dorman Books/Viking for an honest review, which is the only kind of review I write.
