Several characters move in and out of hospice care, and one building is so known for its AIDS victims that a savant resident greets the narrator with a roll call of its dead and dying. But for me the most poignant story was that of Connie Lindstrom, an old woman who got a dodgy blood transfusion after her mastectomy the extra irony to her situation is that her son Joe is gay, and feels guilty because he thinks he should have been the one to get sick. The same patients appear in multiple chapters titled “The Gift of…” (Sweat, Tears, Hunger, etc.) – Rick, Ed, Carlos, and Marty, with brief appearances from Mike and Keith.
This is rather like a set of linked short stories, narrated by a home care aide who bathes and feeds those dying of AIDS. The Gifts of the Body by Rebecca Brown (1994) For some reason that I can't articulate, I really liked the book, even though it is a million miles from my preferred reading genre.Fiction about caregiving for AIDS patients and Victorian ghosts nonfiction about American race relations and British wildlife: novellas have it all! Here are my latest four reads. A real ghostly presence or imagined through some mental disintegration of our protagonists? I'm not quite sure and I don't think it matters. * Book Magpie * Millie remains a haunting presence and influences both outcomes for Evelyn and Kirsten. It is quite a creepy, eerie and very atmospheric read and, for someone who has never liked the water much, a damn scary one at times. * Dreamcatcher * The writing is simply gorgeous, at times lyrical and beautiful in its simplicity, with hints of magical realism/folklore and fantasy and the tension was always present throughout. The book's ramifications shimmer on - frightful and transcendent in tidal irresistibilities. * The Worm Hole * And, in the end, neither the heart of this book nor the nature of woman can possibly be reached, for to reach such ends would be to destroy them.
It's got enough of the history that intrigues many people without treading the same path. It's well-researched and it puts a different spin on a well-used format. Erin Hull * The Bookbag * Bodies Of Water is a solid article. Jim Mcleod * Ginger Nuts of Horror * it excels is in its commentary on the treatment of Victorian women as well as its hair-raising and unsettling tone. Becky Lea * Film and Other Assorted Buffery * Bodies of Water is a modern Gothic masterpiece, a haunting and moving story filled with rich, tender writing and an ending that manages to be both melancholic and uplifting at the same time, it is a confident start to Leslie's novel writing career. It's a book for reading by the fire with a blanket ready to draw around yourself as the brilliant chill sets in and takes hold. Relishing in its genre coding and richly atmospheric, Bodies of Water is a fascinating debut and demonstrates the promise of V.H.
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