Sacrificing for Your Love One

In today's book review, I will be sharing my thoughts on a pleasant and beautiful short novella by Alice Munro. It is a story about a husband ("Grant") having to deal with his wife's ("Fiona") Alzheimer condition and how their livelihood were affected when Fiona's condition became worse.

Overall, it is a story about love, acceptance, understanding, giving and sacrificing.

Plot Summary:

As Fiona's condition became worse, she moved to a hospice to stay and eventually, she befriend another resident living over there, Aubrey. They became closer after some interaction and at the same time, her memories about Grant started slowly fading away. However, because of financial issues, Aubrey's wife, Mariam had to bring him home which caused Fiona to sink into a depression. She became more frail and lost weight as a result of it. Rather than seeing her in such state, Grant tried to convinced Mariam to bring Aubrey back which in a way, would comforts Fiona although having your wife finding joy with another man is not something that can be easily accepted. In the end, Aubrey did went back to the hospice with Grant and before they meet, in that moment, Fiona remembered Grant and embraces him.

As I read, I realised that there are far more deeper meanings in it. Grant's care for Fiona could be seen as an act of love or also because of his guilt towards her for his past actions. Nonetheless, as time faded away, nothing truly matters in the end. Most importantly is that Grant will be there for Fiona and would do whatever things that benefits her. This is what love is all. Giving the best to the other and accepting who he/she is.

My only gripe with the book was that the relationship between Grant and Mariam was not developed further. It would be good if we can find out how they are going to deal with this arrangement. I.e. Grant letting Aubrey to stay with Fiona and Mariam sending him back.