Whoever talks about death? It is definitely not something I dwell on, life is worrying enough! Whoever heard of a death doula? Never heard of a birth doula either. Whoever heard about death cafes? Apparently a lot of people as I understood from Mikky Brammer's new book, The Collected Regrets of Clover!
Death doula, the first I heard of it, is a profession! A person who guides a dying person and provides solace in the last few weeks of life. A death cafe is an informal group that meets regularly to talk about death and help people grieve. This amazing book is about Clover, a young woman, a death doula in New York. Sounds morbid? Actually the book is not morbid at all. For this weird and unique topic, the book is pretty racy and keeps you glued with a love story, stories actually, weaved into it.
Clover's character is understandable. She is a single child brought up by her grandfather, who passes away, and consequently she is quite alone and lonely. She has no friends, and in fact, her circumstances make her afraid of getting close to anyone or making friends. The only topic that she can relate to and enjoy is the topic of death. Hence in her spare time, she visits death cafes in the city. Here, she meets Sebastian, who's grandmother, Claudia, is dying and there develops a strange connection.
Clover documents all her conversations with the dying people in three notebooks. She calls them, Regrets, Advice and Confessions. I found this extremely interesting as a character in a book that I love, The Golden Notebook, by Doris Lessing, had a similar approach. Some of the common regrets were, not having said 'I love you', not having hugged someone, and not having said sorry. But there were many strange regrets as well and stranger still, Clover attempted to fulfill some of these unfulfilled desires!
The book, in the character of Clover, captures loneliness very well. She binge watches romantic movies and scenes, spies on a romantic couple in the building opposite through a binoculars, prefers pets, two cats and a dog, and is almost afraid of, or does not know how to, hold a normal conversation. The one normal thing (in my view) she does is, spends time in a bookstore. Recommended for lonely and not so lonely people.
Slowly the secrets of her dying client Claudia and her grandfather are revealed. Claudia's romantic regret and grandpa's secret / possible romance! She attempts to find Claudia's secret lover and discovers 'love' herself! Read this amazing story to find out what actually turns up! Amazing and unique idea for a book, writing about death with grace!
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