The Weight of Heaven

24Feb/100

Frank and Ellie Benton loose their only child, a seven-year-old boy to a rare illness before the opening pages of the book. The Weight of Heaven is their lives lived with an attempt to survive that death-and are fearful that maybe that was the only thing uniting them. Frank and Ellie had been married for 11 years before the birth of their son Benny, but now that seemed like another life ago.

Amongst their pain and grief Ellie nudges Frank to take what she sees as a shot at saving their relationship, a move to India where Frank's boss has asked him to head up the local office. Will they have changed just enough to no longer be able to cope or work as a team in a strange environment? They have alienated themselves-even from each other, could this be the chance to have to face their pain united?

None of us know really how we'd deal with such a loss, at least not until we have suffered it and know from the inner strength (or lack of it) what we can live with. Thrity Umrigar does an amazing job of capturing the feelings of alienation, even from a spouse who has undergone the same loss, the blame that humans place on each other, and the enormous pressure from the hamster wheel of life to keep going no matter how bad you hurt. The Weight of Heaven feels so real, so true that I had to remind myself that it is fiction- when that is the case I know the author has gone to great trouble to know the details, to understand the whole environment of loss, and I was really blown away by her thoughtfulness with this tender subject.

To me the writing was amazing-brilliant actually, I was right there with her from page one and didn't need to work at all to get emotionally involved in the book. I believe that Thrity Umrigar is a master at what she does and have heard nothing but good about her previous books as well, so I am off to spend some Powell's dough on one of her others, maybe The Space Between Us which I have heard bookies rave about for a while now. I now know what is so attractive about her novels, they bear the weight of their subject matter and lead the reader by the hand to grasp difficult pain but also they show cultures, life, joy and most importantly our cultural blind spots. I will read Thrity Umrigar again, I have no doubt and I am thankful I was introduced to yet another of the few modern novelists who work their words like art in form of ink and letters. I highly recommend this read, very highly. Grab it up!!!

Thrity Umrigar's website: http://www.umrigar.com/