In my first Books That Matter subscription box, I received the book Say Say Say by Lila Savage. I would say I'm quite a picky reader so wasn't expecting to particularly want to read the book I received but was pleasantly surprised during my unboxing (which you can view here). Say Say Say describes itself as wise and insightful about what it means to love in a world where time is always running out.
The first thing that appealed to me about this book is that the blurb makes no mention of the protagonist having a significant other. For the first time in probably my whole life, I seem to be fed up with romantic narratives (which most of my books seem to have)! Say Say Say tells the story of Ella who goes to work for Bryn; a man who has been caring for his wife for a long time. Bryn's wife has a brain injury from a car accident which causes her to lose her memory. Bryn and Ella become unlikely friends as they both navigate Jill's slow regression. Bryn's tenderness towards Jill challenges Ella's beliefs of love and awakens feelings of envy and desire that Ella struggles to control.
The nature of Jill's injury prompted me to consider my own connections and relationships with others whilst reading the book. The book delves deeply into the importance of intimacy and human touch. This is something that struck particularly with me whilst reading this book during lockdown, a time when we cannot see or physically touch all of our loved ones at a time when we would most like. Although this book does not have much of a plot or an action packed storyline, Lila Savage writes in a way that makes you want to turn each page by encouraging you to really think about the value of each and every relationship you have. Lila Savage has not only written a story about grieving loss but also a story about grieving the things we cannot have.
One aspect of this book that I particularly enjoyed is that Ella identifies herself as someone who is attracted to both men and women but never uses a label to identify that. In a world full of labels, this is a refreshing take as we don't need Ella to label herself for us to feel like we know her. We know Ella is in a lesbian relationship with Alix, but Ella is not a lesbian. On a very different note, I also enjoyed the fact there was a female Alix in this book! Although the spelling is different to mine, it was amusing to read that Alix was always assumed to be a boy because of her name, an experience I am very familiar with before people meet me in person.
Lila writes in a way I would describe as delicate but she does not shy away from anatomical words such as 'penis', which although is simply a word for a body part, feels almost shocking to read when placed amongst the rest of Lila's writing. This really got me thinking of how even the names of certain body parts can feel taboo and even though Lila has written a book focusing largely on intimacy, very rarely does this involve sexual intimacy which is often the type of intimacy people think of when they first hear the word.
TLDR; a very gentle read with not much of a story but plenty of food for thought.
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