Keep - Jenny Haysom

This is a quick read about decisions we'll all make - what do we do with all our stuff when we age?  The author gently reminds us we're all getting and getting rid of things our entire lives.  She tells a lighthearted tale of a "downsizer" Eleanor, who works for a realtor who is trying to sell an older woman's home.  Eleanor partners with Jacob, a 20 something young man, an artistic fellow, who helps stage the home.  The three of them help each other part with their things and the people in their lives.  A good debut novel with some food for thought.

Quotes:

[Harriett]  "Plenty of people, young and old, had difficulty parting with their homes and belongings.  But it seems to her that the elderly were particularly afflicted, in-part because they resisted change and couldn't bear losing or replacing that which was familiar and comforting.  It was as if their habits were set during a certain period, in youth and young adulthood, and as they aged it was more difficult to reset them.  Perhaps it was also true that a certain period of time defined the habits of a generation."

[Harriett] "If this last chapter of her life had a theme, it would be erasure, the whiting-out of previous chapters. ..Sometimes while talking, she'd suddenly fall quiet, as if someone had pressed a mute button mid-sentence or painted her tongue with Liquid Paper."

[Harriett] "Strange, as she'd always known unconsciousness to be black, but this was wrong because she was certain that if she closed her eyes for good, the end should be a blank page." 

[Jacob] "He'd gone from preserving things, to using them up, burning through them with gusto and joy, because for the first time in his life, he wasn't hoping for a better future; he was living it." 

Published: 2024  Read: January Genre: Fiction