But I sort of think of “stream of consciousness” as a semi-derogatory way to describe someone’s prose (I don’t know why). Some reviewers refer to it as “stream of consciousness,” which I get. The style is unlike anything I’ve read before.That’s unusual enough that it could be distracting or annoying or tiresome. It’s written in the second person, directed at the mentor she’s lost to suicide. I was soothed to find that the protagonist prefers cats to dogs as I do.Īlso, the book is (sort of) epistolary. I didn’t want to read a sad book about someone losing her friend. I didn’t want to read a book about a dog. While I don’t dislike dogs, I certainly don’t love them. (She lives in a tiny pets-free rent-controlled apartment in New York City.)įrom the get-go, I was skeptical of the book. Not just any dog, but a giant Great Dane. More specifically, there is a woman whose mentor dies, and who – unexpectedly, without warning her or asking her – leaves her his dog. Writing, and what it means to be a writer, and the changing view of writing/writers. Growing old, and what that means, and its inevitable conclusion. Love, and its actors, and its varying forms. (I can’t remember any specific, upsetting descriptions of the death, but I suppose I could have forgotten them.)īut its larger themes are more philosophical: Grief, and its forms. So if that is a problematic topic for you, I sadly recommend against reading the book. The book deals, in large part, with suicide. This particular book won the National Book Award in 2018, if that makes any difference to you.ĭo I need to include a trigger warning here? Probably.

I feel an urgent need to read ALL her books now, in quick succession. (You don’t necessarily hear a lot of buzz about older authors.) (Her protagonist in this book is also older I envisioned the protagonist as a stand-in for Sigrid, although who knows.) She didn’t publish her first book until she was 44! She is a critically acclaimed author, and I am deeply embarrassed that I haven’t read her work until now. And, by the way, Sigrid Nunez is nearly 70 years old, which I find appealing as well.

Sigrid nunez the friend summary