By Debra Dean
This book was recommended by both my parents.
"But now I know, while beauty lives
So long will live my power to grieve."
- Alexander Pushkin
This story moves between Russia during WWII and a modern elderly couple, one of whom is struggling with Alzheimer's disease. It is at once a story about that couple and how they survived the war and how they are currently struggling with how to survive this disease.
It is a beautiful story seeped in rich descriptions of art, detailed history of a harrowing time in history and a simple story of love and age.
"The bond that had first brought them together as children existed whether they spoke of it or not, the bond of survivors. Here in America, a relentlessly foolish and optimistic country, what they knew drew them closer together. She was his country and he hers. They were inseperable.
Until now. She is leaving him, not all at once, which would be painful enough, but in a wrenching succession of separations. One moment she is here, and then she is gone again, and each journey takes her a little farther from his reach. He cannot follow her, and he wonders where she goes when she leaves." Pg 119
"No one weeps anymore, or if they do, it is over small things, inconsequential moments that catch them unprepared. What is left that is heartbreaking? Not death: death is ordinary. What is heartbreaking is the sight of a single gull lifting effortlessly from a street lamp. Its wings unfurl like silk scarves against the mauve sky, and Marina hears the rustle of its feathers. What is heartbreaking is that there is still beauty in the world." Pg. 161
Book 39
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