Cliquer sur une vignette pour aller sur Google Books.
Chargement... Baxter's Requiem (2018)
Information sur l'oeuvreBaxter's Requiem par Matthew Crow (2018)
Aucun Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
Mr Baxter is ninety-four years old when he falls down his staircase and grudgingly finds himself resident at Melrose Gardens Retirement Home. Baxter is many things - raconteur, retired music teacher, rabble-rouser, bon viveur - but 'good patient' he is not. He had every intention of living his twilight years with wine, music and revelry; not tea, telly and Tramadol. Indeed, Melrose Gardens is his worst nightmare - until he meets Gregory. At only nineteen years of age, Greg has suffered a loss so heavy that he is in danger of giving up on life before he even gets going. Determined to save the boy, Baxter decides to enlist his help on a mission to pay tribute to his long-lost love, Thomas: the man with whom he found true happiness; the man he waved off to fight in a senseless war; the man who never returned. The best man he ever knew. With Gregory in tow Baxter sets out on a spirited escape from Melrose, bound for the war graves of Northern France. As Baxter shares his memories, the boy starts to see that life need not be a matter of mere endurance; that the world is huge and beautiful; that kindness is strength; and that the only way to honour the dead, is to live. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Discussion en coursAucunCouvertures populaires
Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)823.92Literature English English fiction Modern Period 2000-ÉvaluationMoyenne:
Est-ce vous ?Devenez un(e) auteur LibraryThing. |
94-year old Mr Baxter, resident of the Melrose Gardens Retirement Home, has one last thing he needs to do in his life. The Home is populated by a suitably eccentric cast of characters, and Baxter finds connection with one of the part-time staff, Greg Cullock, a young man carrying a burden of grief with which Baxter can connect. Together they embark on a trip to France – evading the clutches of care home manager Suzanne – to find closure for Baxter, as he prepares to make an emotional journey to say goodbye at a war memorial to his lost love Thomas, missing in action from the war.
Yes, this is a well-trodden path for books (and films): cross-generational friendship, a journey to find peace, lost love. But Crow writes with such a vitality that, through the tears, you can’t help but laugh and take sheer joy in the life-affirming tale as it unfolds. That is not to say that there is not sadness – there is, in bucket-loads. There is such injustice in what happens to Thomas – revealed to us as readers but not, tellingly, to Baxter – and Greg’s burden in having to cope with the suicide of his younger brother is hard to read. However, as the characters find their own peace and some sort of resolution in the quiet of the war memorials of France, you can’t help but feel the life-force that the novel emits: ‘Live your life, live it bravely and beautifully. That is the greatest tribute you can pay to all those who could not.’
It’s the kind of book that you need when life is a bit grey and getting you down. It will make you cry and laugh, and hopefully leave you with a smile on your face. I definitely recommend it.
(Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review.) ( )