Before I Go
by Oakley, Colleen
- New
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- New/New
- ISBN 10
- 1476761663
- ISBN 13
- 9781476761664
- Seller
-
Lukeville , Arizona, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York, Gallery Books, 2015, hardcover, 309 pp, First Edition stated, First Printing by numberline, Signed by the Author without inscription on the title page, Very Good+ in Near Fine dustjacket. Straight, tight and clean with no markings, tiny split and scuff to top front corner, in new, unclipped dustjacket bearing original price, tiny nick to head of spine. A young woman, diagnosed with incurable cancer, seeks a suitable second wife for her husband. ISBN 9781476761664
Reviews
Before I Go is the first novel by American author, Colleen Oakley. In February, almost three years after being declared cancer-free, twenty-seven year old Daisy Richmond discovers she has won the cancer lottery twice. And this second win is the big one: she will not survive. And once she accepts that fact, she suddenly begins to worry about Jack: how will her loving but disorganised husband cope without her there to manage his life, to scratch his back where he can’t reach, to cook him meals, bear his children and save him from suffocating in a sea of discarded socks?
As Daisy narrates current events, the reaction of family and close friends to this latest news, her own progress through the stages of grief, and her secret search for a wife for Jack, the reader is given glimpses of Daisy’s earlier life: her childhood with her widowed mother, meeting Jack, her first cancer diagnosis, her career. She actually finds the woman who ticks all the boxes for what she believes Jack needs, but when they meet, things don’t quite turn out how Daisy had anticipated. Is this a case of “be careful what you wish for….”?
Whether or not this is an authentic depiction of how a dying woman with a brain tumour would think and react can, of course, only be confirmed by someone in that situation, but this book will certainly elicit in the reader some consideration as well as laughter and a lump in the throat. There is plenty of humour in what could have been a sombre tale: Daisy’s inner monologue is sometimes serious, but often funny; her use of Capitals (“…now that I have Lots of Cancer…”), her vivid imagination, the banter with Jack and the honest brevity of her best friend Kayliegh, all create laugh-out-loud moments.
Oakley employs some lovely descriptive prose (“…the irreversible rush of emotions that overtakes everything when you first are falling in love. It’s like trying to stop a flood with a chain-link fence. Impossible.”) and while the characters are not all instantly appealing, and the end is predictable, the journey is enjoyable and worthwhile. Readers will look forward to more from Oakley.
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Details
- Bookseller
- West of Eden Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 9832
- Title
- Before I Go
- Author
- Oakley, Colleen
- Book Condition
- New New
- Jacket Condition
- New
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition stated, First Printing by numberline
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 1476761663
- ISBN 13
- 9781476761664
- Publisher
- Gallery Books
- Place of Publication
- New York, Ny
- This edition first published
- 2015-01
- Keywords
- Breast; Contemporary; Contemporary Women; Family; Family Life; Feminine; Fiction; Husband and wife; Patients; Romance
Terms of Sale
West of Eden Books
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About the Seller
West of Eden Books
About West of Eden Books
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
- Good+
- A term used to denote a condition a slight grade better than Good.