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Say Her Name

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The author, Francisco Goldman, lost his wife and soul mate tragically at the age of 30. Francisco was much older and madly in love – maybe even somewhat obsessed. This book has been described by Colm Toibin as “A beautiful love story and an extraordinary story of loss.” It is that, but also more – and the “more” sometimes seems downright creepy. Everyone mourns differently, and for some the mourning period lasts longer than for others. But Goldman’s novel (yes, it is his story “novelized” – not sure where his reality begins and ends) makes us believe that he will mourn for the rest of his life. He dwells on the small aspects of loss that become meaningful to the survivor – like the indentations her fingers made in her face cream or visits to places that she enjoyed. These small details are described and fawned over so that Francisco never has to “let her go”, never has to allow her to escape from his memory. “Descending into memory like Orpheus to bring Aura out alive for a moment, that’s the desperate purpose of all these futile little rites and reenactments.”

more but I’m bored listing them all— oh yeah, the writing style itself was annoying. Also the timeline was often unclear. Bobbie and her friends Naya attend a prestigious boarding school. On Halloween Night, they are dared to summon the ghost of Bloody Mary by saying her name 5 times into a mirror. Bobbie, Naya and a boy named Caine agree to the game, as they have never believed in ghosts. After they perform the summoning, strange things begin to happen and they realize that the legend of Bloody Mary may be true after all.no longer him. No longer a husband. No longer a man who goes to the fish store to buy dinner for himself and his wife. In less than a year I would be no longer a husband than I was a husband." Needless to say, the book fulfilled it's horrific aim. I was -- and am scared. I enjoyed the story and Bobbie's spunky, shy girl personality. And that ending? Great. I recommend this to anyone who's brave enough (or at least not a scaredy cat like me). And Goldman tries everything to arrive at that elusive truth. He tells. He shows. He gives us excerpts from Aura's diaries and short stories. He writes close to her point of view as a child. He even writes close to her mother's point of view. He studies the science of waves (his wife's killer; this is revealed early). He deconstructs linear time. He writes short chapters. He writes long chapters. He speaks directly to Aura and to the reader. He tries with all his might to understand how and why this could have happened, and what he is supposed to do in its aftermath. And all of this formal experimentation does not distract from the story. Somehow it makes the content even more raw and visceral.

My first impression of this book was that it was magnificent. I could only read a tiny bit at a time because of the crushing weight of the loss that the author experienced after the untimely death of his wife. The book gets two stars for this part alone. The rest was crap. Goldman's writing is lovely and the part about Aura's death is particularly strong. The problems with this book are the characters, none of whom is particularly likable. Now, I don't need to "like" the characters of a book to find value in it; for instance, Tova Reich's characters in all her novels are just plain base and venal, but I adore her work. And in the process, he captures our attention, rather like Samuel Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, until the reader is literally as fascinated and transfixed with Aura Estrada – Francisco Goldman’s young and doomed wife – as he himself is. It is a masterful achievement, hard to read, hard to pull oneself away from. Francisco Goldman is positively a man familiar with the agonies of grief. He knows the living death of grief. He knows the impossiblities of having to go on living after the death of the one person who makes life worth living. And, he is the most gorgeous and generous of tellers of that experience I have ever known to be alive in my time. He's a writer of the most profound gifts to share.I have mixed feelings about this book. It is beautifully written and certainly a paean to the love shared by Francisco and Aura. It is touching and accurate when describing the feelings of loss and its aftermath. Aura was a poet and novelist, and the use of her own words to revivify her works quite well. Yet there is something over-the-top about his devotion to her that sometimes takes the edge off this love story. Dropped threads/ Plot holes More info on the medical experiments could have easily upped the creepy factor, but it’s glossed over. The whole thing of WHY her bio-dad wanted Eva to take a DNA test in the first place is unclear. The husband’s involvement. Sugar’s dealings with Ronnie. The doctor job that she’s conveniently suspended from (otherwise the story arc might have had to be about work/life balance. Goldman’s anguish over losing the love of his life is a paradox of the truest romance perhaps ever written. He found a true love and in typical romance fashion he lost it. His message to the world is this: What’s most glaring and intentional about Crenshaw and AAPF’s approach to this heartbreaking, necessary and significant contribution to history is the spotlighting of the many unsung names most of us have never heard: Denise Hawkins (killed November 11, 1975). Netta Africa (May 13, 1985). LaTanya Haggerty (June 4, 1999). Tiraneka Jenkins (July 14, 2009). April Webster (December 16, 2018). I also like how there's many twists and turns in this story that leaves you guessing how everything will turn out. It's a book I didn't want to put down because I wanted to know what happens next!

I had all kinds of feelings going through me while reading this book. At first I was kind of worried because I was having a hard time feeling sympathy for Goldman, and I thought it was terrible of me, he lived a terrible loss, and he felt the need to write about it. But I just could not completely understand his point of view in the whole story, he seemed like a very selfish person, and he seemed to have made himself the center of the world with that terrible story of his true love being lost. I know it seems insensitive of me to say this, but it´s what I was feeling. Being a mother myself, I could not help thinking that he was shutting out all other people who might have suffered for the death of his wife. I can't make up my mind if I like the twist at the end or not. I think I do? Right now I do. The newspaper clipping was a nice touch. Say Her Name" is a magnificent tribute to Goldman's love, Aura, his precious young wife of only 4 years. Her life affected him in such a way as to brand his heart and soul eternally, and he shows that in an eloquence of language and writing that is timeless, heart-wrenching, and a memorial of their relationship. El desenlace me dejo pensando bastante, honestamente, no esperaba ese giro en las ultimas paginas, sobre todo porque ya antes habia habido algunos giros inesperados, sin embargo, me gusta, cuando un libro no te deja pensando es señal de que quizas no fue tan memorable como te lo parecio en un determinado momento.Her characters are always so well drawn and these ones are no exception. I felt for Eva from the start. I loved the twists and turns they really kept me reading and on the edge of my seat too.

The best part about this book was the humour throughout. Bobbie is quite a cynical, wry character and I loved her observations. They were a bit of relief from the whole going-to-die theme. And they stopped it being too much. Ah, but then the author starts giving out descriptions about arms and evil faces emerging from reflective surfaces. I honestly screamed when I thought I saw something in my reflection (PS, it was my curly hair). Soon enough I was feeling creeped out and shaky. I had to stop for a bathroom break and had to sing Christian tunes to keep my imagination from running wild. Mitchell claims to love writing strong women, but I'm not sure she understands what "strong" means... and it should not be mutually exclusive from intelligence either! You can't be strong enough to survive in this big, harsh world without some common sense... right? RIGHT!? Like a lot of ghost books, this one is a detective story. Can Bobbie and her friends find out what happened to Mary before she gets to them? Is five days enough time to discover the truth about Mary Worthington?

I wish I had more than 5 stars to give "Say Her Name"...I wish I could give it to everyone who has lost a loved one. I wish you'd get a copy and enjoy it for the next several days. It's a magnificient book.

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