Review: ALL THINGS CONSOLED, by Elizabeth Hay

ALL THINGS CONSOLED, by Elizabeth Hay

Audiobook

Penguin Random House Canada Audio - 2018

Narrated by the author, Elizabeth Hay

My Rating (out of 5)

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Winner of the 2018 Weston Writer's Trust Award for Non-Fiction - The most coveted award in Canadian Non-Fiction. Elizabeth Hay is one of Canada's premier writers. She is a Giller Prize winner for her book LATE NIGHTS ON AIR, published in 2009.  I read it back then and enjoyed it enough to remember her writing style when I came across this book.

Once again i have tripped and fallen outside my usual genres. I would tell you that I don't even know why I picked up this book so far out of the norm for me, but I would be lying. The truth is, this was the book I needed to hear or read right now.  

Only a few short weeks ago I finally moved my mother from the house she lived in for he last 45 years, to a single bedroom apartment closer to me.  There was a lot of stress for both of us, as well as a certain sadness in leaving the family home for the last time. For me, this represented the first very big step of a long and difficult journey which her and I will travel in the days ahead. I do not know how much longer she will be able to live independently, but I feel she deserves to keep her independence as long as it is safe to do so.  There will come a time when my assistance  will no longer be enough and she will need to move again - into a retirement home, and if her physical health holds up long enough, I know she will need to enter a "memory unit". My only sibling lives half a country away, so it falls to me to oversee this process.

When a subject that you personally connect with merges with a writer with such great style and prose, you pretty much have to pick it up.  I did, and I am ever thankful for it.

In ALL THINGS CONSOLED, Hay documents the final years of her parent's lives.  She has written an incredibly open, candid and honest account of how age changes us, and how becoming caregiver to aging parents affects us, our relationships with them,  and our relationships with our siblings as well.  

Hay deftly documents enough of the family history to get to know what her parents were like in their younger and healthier years. Her gruff father with the short temper who was a stern teacher and school principle. Her overly frugal mother who would not waste a scrap of food, and seemed genuinely offended if anyone else did, but lived life with a flair only an artist could. When they are no longer able to live alone, far away from the assistance of their children, they are moved closer to Elizabeth and her husband. From this point Hay shares the experience of assisting her parents through their final years. She does this with exceptional respect, love, tenderness, and compassion.

Not all authors should narrate their own audiobooks.  Hay is one of the exceptions.  Her warm, soothing voice was exactly what this book needed. 

There is a quote - "We read to know we are not alone" by C.S. Lewis.  Listening to this poignant work in Hays own soothing voice did in fact let me know that I am not alone, regardless of how personal the journey is.  

Happy Reading,

Christine