what an awful book - thank god I finally finished it ( )

I have had this book on a list or sitting on a shelf waiting to be read since the 90s. [b:An Unknown Woman|1480835|An Unknown Woman|Alice Koller|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387705542s/1480835.jpg|1471926] is one of my favorite books ever and one that had a true impact on my life...but timing is everything and that book arrived in my hands at the perfect time, this one came a bit too late. I did enjoy knowing what happened to Koller after she left Nantucket, I find her writing simple and direct and oddly moving. She writes with emotion, and you can feel what she feels. I think I would have carried away something entirely different had I read it when I was younger.

"You break a bone in your leg. You go to a doctor to have her reduce the fracture, to give you something for the pain. In time the bone will heal, the pain will go away. To whom can you go when your life breaks? You mourn because you love: there is no other reason. So there is nothing to be healed of. Would you be healed of your loving. Better still: do not love at all this way. Or, if you love, arrange to die before he dies, before she dies. These are the only ways to avoid mourning."

I have mourned, I do mourn. I think she got it right. You cannot be cured of it, it goes on forever, it is only the intensity that sometimes diminishes, and it can rear its head full and complete at any unexpected moment for the rest of your life.

I am glad I finally got around to reading this. It does not rise to An Unknown Woman for me, but it is worthwhile glimpse into a life lived outside the norm and without compromise. I imagine Alice Koller as a woman I would very much have liked to have known. ( )