It’s a 2020 novel about a woman who agrees to stay with her friend who has terminal cancer, who is planning to take a euthanasia drug so she can die on her own terms. It’s a short novel (210 pages) and a very quick read. Parts of it are funny, in spite of its serious subject matter. At one point, the narrator refers to herself and her friend as “Lucy and Ethyl do euthanasia”. At heart, it is about human connection.
This is the novel that Pedro Almodovar’s current film, The Room Next Door, is based on. It won the top prize at Venice and a long standing ovation. Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton play the two friends. Knowing that, it was hard not to picture them as I read the novel, especially Tilda Swinton as the dying woman. I’m looking forward to seeing this film in December when it opens in the US.
I liked this novel a lot.
I just started Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead.
