Book Review: And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer Fredrik Backman

Hello and Happy Thursday my lovely peeps! 

It’s been a long week, but Friday is almost here, so fret not (I tell myself)! I’m currently juggling a couple of books, which is something I’ve not done in a while. It’s interesting though; A little bit of book 1 at 8pm, a nibble out of book 2 at 9pm, and right before bed, I might chow down on my main read for a while. It’s like a tv program…but for books!

Anyways, for this week’s review, I’m featuring And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer Fredrik Backman!

---

Title: And Every Morning The Way Gets Longer and Longer
Author: Fredrik Backman
Narrator: David Morse
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Short Story, Novella, Literary Fiction, Family
Edition: Audiobook (Libby)
Length: 1 hour 9 minutes
Published: 6 November 2016
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

LINKS:
Amazon: [Link]
Goodreads: [Link]

---

A little book with a big heart!

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, and Britt-Marie Was Here comes an exquisitely moving portrait of an elderly man’s struggle to hold on to his most precious memories, and his family’s efforts to care for him even as they must find a way to let go.

With all the same charm of his bestselling full-length novels, here Fredrik Backman once again reveals his unrivaled understanding of human nature and deep compassion for people in difficult circumstances. This is a tiny gem with a message you’ll treasure for a lifetime.

---

“This is a story about memories and about letting go. It’s a love letter and a slow farewell between a man and his grandson, and between a dad and his boy. I never meant for you to read it, to be quite honest. I wrote it just because I was trying to sort out my own thoughts, and I’m the kind of person who needs to see what I’m thinking on paper to make sense of it. But it turned into a small tale of how I’m dealing with slowing losing the greatest minds I know, about missing someone who is still here, and how I wanted to explain it all to my children. I’m letting it go now, for what it’s worth.”

“This is a story about memories and about letting go. It’s a love letter and a slow farewell between a man and his grandson, and between a dad and his boy. I never meant for you to read it, to be quite honest. I wrote it just because I was trying to sort out my own thoughts, and I’m the kind of person who needs to see what I’m thinking on paper to make sense of it. But it turned into a small tale of how I’m dealing with slowing losing the greatest inds I know, about missing someone who is still here, and how I wanted to explain it all to my children. I’m letting it go now, for what it’s worth.”

(excerpt of opening letter to readers)

I don’t know what to say. I’m finding it very hard to piece together the thoughts that are tumbling inside my head other than to note that it was a beautiful, loving, warm, heartbreaking, and striking read; the kind of book that’s short and bittersweet but leaves you with emotions that are hard to describe and leaves a heavy imprint in your heart. This was an amazing read. There’s not enough positive descriptors in the dictionary in any language to describe how I feel right now. I had originally just wanted to add it to my weekly reading list because I wasn’t going to make it in time [to write the review next week] with my other book. A random, happen-chance, in Libby. Afterall, that’s where all the magic seems to present itself.

This book is a story about family, memories, and letting go; it’s a story about learning to say good bye before it’s even time. It’s a book about Alzheimers and how the mind fades like a star even before the body is ready to follow. The story was very sad, there wasn’t a moment that you didn’t feel how somber it is; the moment where three people sit in a room, a child, his father, and his father’s father, all of which knowing that there is one mind in that room that is leaving them, at times already having gone. I had listened to the audiobook version of this short story and compared to the [sampler] Kindle book I read, the narrator made was an enormous contribution in terms of making this and the characters and all of the feelings and emotions attached so much more real. There are lucid moments when we are in little Ted or his father’s mind, watching their beloved family member leave them piece by piece. There are moments when we are in the grandfather’s mind as he sees the world, views his memories, talks to his deceased wife, and understands that each day, his “room” gets smaller and smaller and each day, memories seeming to slip away. The writing was already stellar and already made you want to cry, the narration only made it 10x more real and poignant. 

“Almost all grown adults walk around full of regret over goodbye they wish they’d be able to go back and say better. Our goodbye doesn’t have to be like that. You’ll be able to keep redoing it until it’s perfect. And, once it’s perfect, that’s when your feet touch the ground and I’ll be in space and there won’t be anything to be afraid of.”

There’s nothing more I can say that’ll help do even an ounce of justice and to show you exactly how I feel about the book, writing, the story, and the characters. I thought of my own family and how little time we seem to spend with each other in this hustle and bustle world of ours or how, even when we do have time, we’re all engrossed in technology. It really makes you realize that time isn’t so long for any of us and the thought of it being even shorter despite life and body still being a working and grinding gear for much long isn’t worth an extra 30 minutes on a Nintendo or television. We have time now, when everyone’s capable in body and still present in mind, and we should take use of it.

A beautiful story, I couldn’t NOT recommend it to anyone honestly. The book is always in third person, and we get to see it all through the eyes of a child, and how he views the mind stealing disease, the questions that he asks to his grandfather and father, the promises that he makes, and how he processes all of this. There’s the point of view from the grandfather and the son (Ted’s father) as well and is an all-round amazing book that portrays Alzheimer’s and how it affects the family from many different angles. 

Everything about the book was beautiful, and bitterly sweet. There’s a warmth that really lingers and left me with a bit of a stupor after reading. I felt like I was almost floating and unable to process what I’d just read, especially with the voice of the narrator and how lost he sounds as the grandfather, how sad as little Ted, and how desperate as Ted’s father. Even the opening letter to the reader left you feeling a certain kind of way. In the end, I might’ve picked this book up on a whim, but it’ll be sticking for a long long time. The book already left me speechless tonight. I’ll definitely be going to bed tonight feeling some kind of way. Yeah, it’s a short read, but I can’t recommend it enough.

Advertisement