January 8, 2011. Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. An Unusual Book.

I have no recollection of how this book got into my Kindle, but there it was, so,  as the name seemed interesting, I started to read it.   Now I must have read a review or someone recommended the book to me, but it must have me who put into my Kindle.  I don't think it was a joke.  I am reading it, all the way through and now am at 60% of the pages.  Sometimes it is funny and sometimes it is a serious look at the topic but it is rather weird, reading this book about dying in this beautiful place.

The author, Julian Barnes, has had a fixation on dying.  His whole life he has spent a part of everyday thinking about dying, so this book is the results of his reading and thinking, both past and present.  He is English and non-Christian which seems to be the norm now in Europe.

Now I never think of dying, rather take it as a natural aspect of living.    When I was first told that I had breast cancer I commented to Bob Dunn at work that I was not making a big deal of it in my mind.  I had  done my best in my work, had two fine sons both with lovely families, and if it all turned out badly, that would be the end of me and life would go on for everyone else.  No trauma, no hysterics.

But this book makes dying complicated.  Last summer, several of us in Nova Scotia were discussing our health.  Marg. who has had health problems,  commented that she was not afraid of dying, after all she believed in the afterlife, but she was very fearful as to how she was going to die.  She did not want to be a burden on her family.

Gitta and I decided long ago that we were going to die in our sleep, the night after returning from a trip!!

"Nothing To Be Frightened Of", by Julian Barnes.   Enjoy.