The NYT Book Review ran a review of a new book called Remembering the Bones by Frances Itani a few weeks ago. The novel is about Georgina, an old woman who has a car accident on her way to London to meet Queen Elizabeth. As she lies suffering at the bottom of a hill, her accident invisible to the road above, she revisits her life.
The author has chosen the human skeleton to frame her book; each chapter is named for a bone (as many of the main character’s are now broken), and the chosen bone loosely triggers a memory of earlier times and people in her life. According to the NYT:
[T]he bones provide just the right structural underpinnings, holding [the] story together from inside the narrative. Presented in loose chronological order, each fragment of memory is fascinating in its own way, moving from childhood’s elemental fears and discoveries to the conflicted joys and pains of adulthood. Itani deftly brings them together, dipping into the past to illuminate the present moment, building such emotional complexity that the novel’s ending — both inevitable and surprising — is as subtle as it is wrenching.
The NYT review compares Remembering the Bones to Carol Shields’ The Stone Diaries, a book that I really enjoyed. (In fact, the review is titled "The Bone Diaries"). Both books "chronicle quiet lives from start to finish, uncovering treasure in their dark corners."
Here is a glowing review from The Indextrious Reader, who says:
I really loved the writing, so crisp and yet with so much power in the vagaries of recollection. Georgina is a strong, complex character who fully inhabits her life; even as she lays aged and hurt in a ravine, her memories of her childhood and young adulthood feel contemporaneous. Itani captures the essence of the youthful soul which remains even as the body ages. She takes her place among the constellation of writers featuring old women looking back on life, which seems to be a theme in Canadian literature, and she stakes her claim very convincingly.
The London Public Library blog says "Remembering The Bones is a beautifully written novel. Not once did I find it difficult to get through. In fact, I was eager to get to it whenever I could."
If you do decide to read Remembering The Bones, here is a downloadable podcast featuring an interview with the author.