Psychological | Book Chatter

Here One Moment
By Liane Moriarty
Crown, 9780593798607, September 2024, 512pp.

The Short of It:

If someone told you the age you die along with the cause of death, would you want to know?

The Rest of It:

Their flight is delayed and the plane is packed with anxious. impatient people. Delay, after delay. All of them needing to be somewhere by a certain time. What is the hold up?

They bide their time talking to the people around them and certainly observing and noticing how everyone else is dealing with this delay. I mean, people watching can be quite entertaining. Especially when you have absolutely nowhere to go and you have people packed like sardines all around you.

Cue the baby crying. What a mess!

In the midst of all of this, a woman slowly rises and walks down the aisle stopping at each row to provide each passenger with the following information: their cause of death, age of death. The passengers don’t immediately get what she is doing but after talking amongst themselves they suddenly realize that she is predicting their deaths.

Some of the passengers are disturbed by it. Especially when she tells a young boy’s mother that her son will die from drowning at seven years of age. Others find it amusing, oh, I am going to pass from old age at the ripe age of 90? Great! Another, a workplace accident? As this strange woman makes her way down the aisle, everyone on board begins to get very anxious. Even the flight attendant is told that she will die from self harm. Self harm? Her?

The opening of the book is pretty intense as we spend hours with these folks on their delayed flight. I really enjoyed the lead-up. Once they arrive at their destination, all of these people return back to their daily lives, but with the knowledge of those predictions. They can’t help but be different.

The woman with the young son immediately signs him up for three different swimming lessons a week. He can’t drown if he is an excellent swimmer. Another explores her mental health and whether or not she is truly depressed, self harm? Seems unlikely. As you can imagine, all of these folks, even if the initially blew these prediction off, can’t help but think of what the lady said so those thoughts bleed into how they live their lives.

Then, there’s the woman herself. We learn that her name is Cherry. We learn that her mother was a famous psychic. We learn of her background, her marriages and the like. This part is very interesting because it’s not immediately clear why she chose to deliver this info to anyone.

Once these people left the plane, I lost interest in the story because there are many characters and they all kind of spiraled out. Through alternating chapters you learn about them, and the woman. But then as things begin to happen, I was riveted again. I really wasn’t sure how the story would end. I ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

Audio note, I read this in print but also listened to it on audio here and there. It’s fun to listen to. Made my morning commute quite pleasant.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Beware of Pity
By Stefan Zweig
Actuel, 9781922491169, October 2020, 340pp.

The Short of It:

A strange, interesting read.

The Rest of It:

In 1913, Hofmiller, an Austro-Hungarian cavalry officer stationed at the edge of the empire, is invited to a party at the home of a rich local landowner, a world away from the dreary routine of the barracks. The surroundings are glamorous, wine flows freely, and the exhilarated young Hofmiller asks his host’s lovely daughter for a dance, only to discover that sickness has left her painfully crippled. It is a minor blunder that will destroy his life, as pity and guilt gradually implicate him in a well-meaning but tragically wrongheaded plot to restore the unhappy invalid to health.

This delicate blunder completely ruins Hofmiller. His innocent invitation to dance is repeated in his head over and over again. He sees the stricken look of the girl as she reveals the current state of her legs. After such a faux pas, and his desire to be included in the lives these people lead, he finds himself trying to please Edith any way he can, until he realizes that her only reason for living, is the love she has for him. There is no reciprocation in this regard.

My club chose this book for this month’s meeting and it is indeed very interesting and I feel that there will be plenty to discuss. It reads like a high brow soap opera and I don’t mean that in a negative way. It’s very episodic and dramatic and Edith is quite the femme fatale. as well as Daddy’s “little” girl. She is a young woman who is not used to being told “No”. What she wants, she usually gets so the push/pull of Hofmiller’s relationship with her is one that completely absorbs his every thought.

How can Hofmiller remain in good standing with Edith’s father, and the good Dr. Condor when he cares not one iota for the girl? Why does he even feel it necessary?

Pity. It’s all about pity. The title of the book makes it very clear. Pity can cause you to do all sorts of foolish things. It affects the way you make decisions but others use it to manipulate those around them. Manipulation, guilt, pity, grief. All topics for discussion. Edith is a frustrating character, but in her defense, she is promised over and over again that the next treatment will do the trick. She hangs onto hope because those around her continue to stoke the fire.

I found this book to be rather entertaining, if not a tad exhausting. Much of it was very fast paced. Hofmiller running here, and there and then back again. His interactions with other soldiers, providing a much needed break. All of it interspersed with parties and gatherings and dinners.

I enjoyed the writing very much. We get to know each character’s intentions quite well. I will say also that one part of the story took me by surprise and it changed my outlook on many things. Lots of food for thought.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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