Imagine Me Gone
From a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, a ferociously intimate story of a family facing the ultimate question: how far will we go to save the people we love the most? When Margaret's fiancée, John, is hospitalized for depression in 1960s London, she faces a choice: carry on with their plans despite what she now knows of his condition, or back away from the suffering it may bring her. She decides to marry him. Imagine Me Gone is the unforgettable story of what unfolds from this act of love and faith. At the heart of it is their eldest son, Michael, a brilliant, anxious music fanatic who makes sense of the world through parody. Over the span of decades, his younger siblings -- the savvy and responsible Celia and the ambitious and tightly controlled Alec -- struggle along with their mother to care for Michael's increasingly troubled and precarious existence. Told in alternating points of view by all five members of the family, this searing, gut-wrenching, and yet frequently hilarious novel brings alive with remarkable depth and poignancy the love of a mother for her children, the often inescapable devotion siblings feel toward one another, and the legacy of a father's pain in the life of a family. With his striking emotional precision and lively, inventive language, Adam Haslett has given us something rare: a novel with the power to change how we see the most important people in our lives. "Haslett is one of the country's most talented writers, equipped with a sixth sense for characterization"-Wall Street Journal "Ambitious and stirring . . . With Imagine Me Gone, Haslett has reached another level."-New York Times Book Review
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Community Reviews
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Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett
356 pages
What’s it about?
Margaret and John meet and fall in love. As they are planning their wedding John is suddenly hospitalized with debilitating depression. Should Margaret carry on or escape from this union? Margaret forges ahead and this novel looks at the repercussions of that decision.
What did it make me think about?
This is the story of one family living with mental illness.
Should I read it?
This was not an easy book to read. Not because of the plot or the pace, but due to the subject matter. I felt so badly for every member of the family- and make no mistake John's mental illness touched everyone in the story. I would highly recommend this book. If you read to enlarge your experiences then don't miss this one.
Quote-
"A few months ago, a fog blinded me, thicker than ever before. I slept in the monster's arms. I felt it's breath on my neck, its scaled stomach rising and falling against my back, its head and face invisible as always. I couldn't pretend anymore to Margaret that I was working. The children receded into noises grating on my ears. I stopped moving."
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Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett
356 pages
What’s it about?
Margaret and John meet and fall in love. As they are planning their wedding John is suddenly hospitalized with debilitating depression. Should Margaret carry on or escape from this union? Margaret forges ahead and this novel looks at the repercussions of that decision.
What did it make me think about?
This is the story of one family living with mental illness.
Should I read it?
This was not an easy book to read. Not because of the plot or the pace, but due to the subject matter. I felt so badly for every member of the family- and make no mistake John's mental illness touched everyone in the story. I would highly recommend this book. If you read to enlarge your experiences then don't miss this one.
Quote-
"A few months ago, a fog blinded me, thicker than ever before. I slept in the monster's arms. I felt it's breath on my neck, its scaled stomach rising and falling against my back, its head and face invisible as always. I couldn't pretend anymore to Margaret that I was working. The children receded into noises grating on my ears. I stopped moving."
I you like this try-
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
On Earth We're Breifly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
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