The Household Guide to Dying

by Debra Adelaide, Heather Bolton (Read by)

Overview

When Delia Bennet—author and domestic advice columnist—is diagnosed with cancer, she knows it's time to get her house in order. Fresh, witty, deeply moving—and a celebration of love, family, and that place we call home—this unforgettable story will surprise and delight the listener.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781743106952
Publisher:	Bolinda Audio
Publication date:	05/07/2012
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 5.50(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Debra Adelaide has worked as an editor, book reviewer, and researcher, and she is now a senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. This is her first book to be published in the United States.

Editorial Reviews

Domestic advice columnist Delia is terminally ill, but she has a few loose ends she'd like to wrap up before cancer takes her from her husband and two daughters in Australian novelist Adelaide's ho-hum latest. Though Delia makes lists that encompass everything from the morning routine to planning her daughters' weddings, hoping to control what will come after she is gone, much of what is on her mind is her distant past in the small town of Amethyst, where she lived after she left home at 17 to raise her firstborn. Adelaide metes that portion out slowly, and readers will have figured out the twists long before she gets there. What Delia faces and remembers about her time in Amethyst leaves her better able to face gracefully her own imminent departure, which she chronicles in an advice book. That project leads to some off-kilter scenes (such as Delia observing an autopsy and casket shopping), and though the book ends sweetly, Delia's distant narrative tone and the erratic time line rob the tale of emotional impact. (Apr.)

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Publishers Weekly

Dry meditations on preparing for death and a trip down memory lane preoccupy the cancer-stricken heroine of a reflective, overburdened but not too sentimental story. A mother with a past is about to be snatched away too soon from her devoted husband and female children and needs to leave matters in order, in Australian novelist Adelaide's latest (The Hotel Albatross, 1995, etc.). The central character, Delia, doesn't have much time left and is obsessing about preparing for her young daughters' weddings, while needing to tie up loose ends regarding her own early life and also writing The Household Guide to Dying, the final volume in the Household Guides series related to her domestic-advice column. These jostling strands make for a choppy, sometimes chronologically confusing narrative, further fragmented by flashbacks and glimpses of Delia's professional correspondence. Adelaide's discursive style adds an additional gossipy dimension. However, the story of Delia's teenage pregnancy emerges through the thicket-how her boyfriend abandoned her; how she lived in a caravan, in a small town, as a single parent; how she coped when tragedy struck. Because of her illness, Delia has trouble finishing Household Guide to Dying, but Adelaide succeeds in wrapping things up gracefully. Despite the cluttered scenario and downbeat subject matter, the author's witty, perky tone and insight prevail. Agent: Lizzy Kremer/David Higham Associates

Kirkus Reviews