An extended Reading the Bestsellers review of a 2024 book by Lesley Crewe
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Vagrant Press, 2024. 280 pages. $25
A death changes everything. A sudden death leaves you reeling with heightened emotional reactions – and in Margo’s case, a focus on what was happening in her relationship to her second husband at the time of Dick’s preventable death, as well as the cascade of secondary losses that accompany the physical departure from life.
In Lesley Crewe’s latest novel, the best-selling Nova Scotia author clearly captures the circumstances that follow the loss of a loved one. True to the form she has established in 13 previous novels, she creates a character-driven narrative full of contemporary, funny, heartbreaking and relatable experiences.
Margo is 62 and the mother of two adult children and grandchildren. Her appearance is her overall priority, but it masks a plethora of insecurities. She values and is celebrated by men especially for looking good. Her make-up is her protection. She looks like a magazine cover girl, with her petite figure, pristine hairstyle and manicured nails.
As she is looking for her expensive nail polish, she finds Dick, her cold dead husband, slumped over in his den chair. In her attempts to call 911, she fails to recall their landline is disconnected, is unable to locate her cell phone, and eventually finds it without a battery at zero, yet again. Everything is indeed dead.
Margo’s life is upended. She had a husband and companion, a home, a life, even if it was not completely happy. A life where she kept busy in her roles and space.
What will she do now, knit and make pickles? she asks herself. In her grief and mourning, she fixates on how Dick failed to listen to her admonishment to eat better for his well-being.
Her grief compounds when she learns the state of her affairs, which Dick managed. Margo is left helpless, angry, lonely and resentful. As a widow she has to pivot in a new direction.
This novel has many characters who are flawed and interesting. The author weaves them into Margo’s life and shows how they impact her journey in her new normal.
Julia, Margo’s daughter, wants to help but is already overwhelmed with her own life. At one point, Julia asks her brother, Mike, if he thinks they will survive this time as they assist their mother to find pertinent documents in her home, teach her how to mow the lawn and how to operate the tv remote, which Dick solely operated.
Margo remembers her first husband, Monty, who kept telling her to grow up when they were married with children. He uprooted Margo’s life when he left her for another partner, Byron. Monty reaches out to support Margo and offers numerous acts of kindness.
Her siblings, Eunie and Hazen, look out for Margo as does their tenant, Holly. Olenka, Mike’s girlfriend and a scientist with insight into the animal kingdom, provides humour. Carol and Velma, Dick’s first wife and daughter try repeatedly to hurt Margo in revenge for some past actions, which turns the funeral and more into disasters.
As Margo begins to accept life as it is, she starts to remove the make-up. She stays with each of her children and siblings, and eventually makes the hard decision to find an apartment, live alone for the first time and start again.
“Where did the old mom go?” Julia asks her mom at one point. “She’s still here,” Margo responds, “crawling her way into the light.”
Death and Other Inconveniences is an insightful and entertaining read about life and death. The book reminds readers how fleeting life is and how erratic it can be. It draws readers to appreciate many relatable, flawed characters and to identify with the small deaths, loss of roles and expectations that accompany death.
Evangelical readers will identify with the themes and the brokenness, complexities of the characters as well as the beauty of transformation.
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