Festival Days

 

I read this collection of essays/stories by Jo Ann Beard because a recommendation in the New York Times reminded me that I've been meaning to read her work for years. I began the book and was taken aback by the subject matter. The first three stories were about a very ill dog, a man who has to make an incredible leap between two buildings to save his life and a woman who opts for assisted suicide when her cancer becomes more than she can bear (she calls Dr. Kevorkian!). Very grim, dark and unsettling but I could not put the book down because her writing is so insightful and so gorgeous. She blurs the line between fiction and nonfiction in an interesting way and by the time I finished reading the stories I felt like Jo Ann Beard was speaking to me. She loves and understands animals. She knows a lot about mortality and empathizes with friends who are undergoing trauma. She is hurt and puzzled when a lover whose friendship she delighted in and thought the feeling was mutual suddenly dumps her for a younger woman who wears fur! There's so much misery but it's delivered with a side of humour that I found absolutely appealing. Despite its poignancy and its unrelenting intensity Festival Days was a surprisingly uplifting read and I recommend it highly.