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    The Art of Saying Goodbye: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Art of Saying Goodbye: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Art of Saying Goodbye: A Novel
    Ebook324 pages5 hours

    The Art of Saying Goodbye: A Novel

    By Ellyn Bache

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “Bache writes straight from the heart, peopling her pages with characters you will never forget.”
    —Lee Smith, author of Fair and Tender Ladies

    “Ellyn Bache draws her characters from the inside.”
    —Baltimore Sun

    Critically acclaimed author Ellyn Bache captivates with The Art of Saying Goodbye, a beautiful and poignant story of four suburban women who gain new insights and appreciations of their own lives when a much-loved neighbor falls gravely ill. In the tradition of Kristin Hannah’s Firefly Lane and Marisa de los Santos’s Belong to Me, Bache’s The Art of Saying Goodbye is a beautiful and touching story of friendship, love, commitment, and self-discovery that will enthrall readers of Jodi Picault and Jill Barnett.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 7, 2011
    ISBN9780062033697
    Unavailable
    The Art of Saying Goodbye: A Novel

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    Reviews for The Art of Saying Goodbye

    3.5/5

    53 ratings18 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Very enjoyable book ... taking such a heart rending story and having something good come from it.
    • 4/5
      A Reading Good Books @ Wordpress review.* In compliance with FTC guidelines, it should be noted that I received the book for free.In the past, I have read only one similar book, a book about a bevy of women bonding together, and that was The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. Although I do not have much experience with the genre, I was looking forward to reading this book.The book is about five women — Iona, Julianne, Andrea, Ginger, and their rock, Paisley. On the surface, all they had in common as living in the same neighborhood, Brightwood Trace. Paisley, “was the thread that wove their tapestry together”. But what happens when that thread weakens and breaks?It is set during the last days of Paisley’s life, flashbacks of their time with her. The good and the bad. Each of the women learn how to cope with their own issues, their families, their goals, their lives so far. All of them reflect at how Paisley has touched their lives and now, it was their turn to give back to her before she finally says goodbye.I really like how the women do have distinct voices. They are five very different women. To me, a sign of good writing is when I could see the characters materialize in my head as I am reading the words off the page. Like I am hearing their voices as they talk. Even though the book also talks about the other women, it still revolves around Paisley. Each chapter dedicates itself to one of the women, talking about her present life and/or past experiences with her. But when it comes to the chapters where she is the one talking, the point of view shifts to first person, whereas everything else was told in third person. I found that very interesting. It felt like she was telling her little stories while watching the days go by, just waiting… waiting for her time. And I found that very touching.My favorite character was Julianne. When I read the summary on GoodReads, Julianne was described as “a nurse with an unsettling psychic ability that allows her to literally feel what her patients feel”. I saw the word “psychic” and I had doubts. But she ended up being the one I liked the most. She was the one who first found out about Paisley’s illness and throughout the story and I felt she was the one who was affected the most by it. Disturbed, really… being the one who pretty much felt it.I also like Brynne, Paisley’s eldest daughter. I think I related to Brynne a lot because I also suffered a loss. Almost eight years ago, I lost my father. I did not lose him to cancer but it was quick nonetheless. This was one of the reasons why I was adamant to read this right after I read that it was about losing someone and “saying goodbye”. But I am glad I read it.The book tries to be “not sad”. It celebrates Paisley’s life and how she touched other people. But I must admit, I shed a few tears along the way. I know the pain of losing someone and in a way, I took from that personal experience and I understood the emotions going on on the page. It imparts a lot of life lessons, telling the reader to be strong always and make the most out of life.Rating: 4/5.Recommendation: It is a perfect book club selection. Especially if you are composed of strong individuals, strong women. Even if it does tackle the topic of death, it made me feel good.Reading Group Guide
    • 3/5
      Not a real pick-me-up, but it was easy to read, interesting and engaging. Reminiscent of "The Wednesday Sisters" by Meg Waite Clayton, it follows five women through 10 years. Written in the present, the story reveals the inner thoughts and workings through a series of flashbacks from each woman's perspective. When Paisley falls ill, they are all shaken from their comfortable roles into new roles with which all are unfamiliar.

      While this was an entertaining book, I was not as invested in the characters as I was in "Wednesday", and would recommend the Waite Clayton book before picking this one.
    • 5/5
      This was a book that I really liked although I was not sure that I would. I thought it might be a bit too morbid but it was a beautiful story.The story has been built around an experience in the author's life. It concerns the women of Brightwood Trace one of whom (Paisley) has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and is fading fast so we know the end of the story. She is the leader of the group, the bright and vivacious one that all the others look too. Each of her friends gets to tell part of the story and fill in some of their background, even Paisley. Each of them reacts to Paisley's illness in their own way and in relation to where they are in their life. As Paisley gets to tell a little of her story we see the influence she has had on all the others. I could relate to the characters, and I loved some of the little detailed experiences told in the story. Well worth a read
    • 4/5
      I liked the story revolving around Paisley and her terminal illness and how she and her friends deal with the cancer. The cancer brings out the best - and sometimes the worst - to each of Paisley's friends. It is interesting to see how the author develops the characters and how the characters react and act upon the news of Paisley's diagnosis. While some of the characters come across as selfish and self-serving, the author has hit the gamut of emotions and reactions that come along with finding out that a close friend is going to lose her life to an ugly disease. While the plot stretched thin in some areas, the characters were pretty much spot on and I would recommend this story as it does not shy away from realistic characters or death.
    • 2/5
      Brightwood Trace, a neighborhood in suburbia similar to many others of its kind all over the country, is home to a diverse group of women who remain friends despite the fact that they are five very different people. But when Paisley, the life of the party and the glue that holds all five of them together, falls ill with terminal cancer, each of the women must find the strength to stick with Paisley through the worst of the worst. And in the process, each one of these women begins to look at her life in a whole new light.I hate that I have to write this review in the honest way that I write all reviews. Because I wanted to like this book, I desperately did. I love novels that revolve around a group of female friends. I love novels about the every day aspects of life – the daily mundane stuff and the not-so-fun stuff like when the best person in the book gets cancer and it’s terminal. Everything about The Art of Saying Goodbye told me I would love it. But I didn’t. And here is where I will attempt to pinpoint why.What it boils down to is the characters. I didn’t connect with any of them in a real way. I even had trouble for the first half of the book telling them each apart! Which is not a good thing. Once I figured out each of their personalities and began to separate each one from the rest, I realized that I didn’t really like them as people. They each seemed so selfish to me, in different ways and to different degrees, but they were each selfish for sure. And not selfish in the endearing, flawed character that you love anyway kind of way. They were just plain not supportive of their friend who was going through the most difficult thing a person can imagine. I didn’t understand how they (with the exception of one of them, Andrea) could call themselves Paisley’s good friends.The other thing I wasn’t a huge fan of is that I felt that the summary provided by the publisher isn’t quite accurate. To me, it didn’t feel like any of these women made any significant transformative changes in their thinking or behaviors based on Paisley’s cancer. Sure, there were small changes, but certainly nothing earth-shattering. I guess I was just expecting more bombshells dropped or huge life events to take place and the whole novel felt sort of anti-climactic. I’m not sure how else to explain it.I did not hate this book. I finished it, which is certainly telling – I enjoyed it enough to keep reading despite my misgivings. However, I have read many other books that revolve around a group of women and their friendships that I enjoyed quite a bit more than this one. So while it’s not the worst book ever, The Art of Saying Goodbye was not one I much enjoyed.
    • 5/5
      This was a very good book. I put off reading it thinking it would depress me being about a person with Cancer but the author did a great job. The characters seemed so real and how they went beyond their sadness and looked at how the cancer effected their lives was interesting and very real. All of the characters are facing their own issues as well as how they handle the issue of Paisleys cancer and ultimate death. Very touching and endearing.
    • 5/5
      “Odd, how in the afterglow of someone else’s life, your own looks so much brighter.”This line from Ellyn Bache’s new novel The Art of Saying Goodbye (William Morrow, 2011), gives you a sense of the glowing feel you will gather from this artful novel.In the novel, golden girl Paisley suddenly learns she has a late stage cancer. It is unthinkable, and throughout the course of the novel, we see the women who know Paisley re-examining their own lives, revealing secrets and shames, and finding new footing in this redefined world. Instead of a book of darkness and mourning, the author has created a book that is at once real and luminescent, where the characters look beyond sadness to a fuller view of their interlinked worlds.Bache (whose short story collection The Value of Kindness won the Willa Cather Fiction Prize) has built this novel with a series of chapters that each feel like a perfect little short story all their own. Her writing craft shines, and I found myself eager to pick up the book again and again, feeling that each chapter was a gift I gave to myself to savor. Give this book to yourself and others, and enjoy! Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      First off, I really like the cover. It's pretty!! I really enjoyed the book.If it wasn't for goodreads I probably would have never come across this book in the book store, since it is not the type of book I normally read. But I am glad I found it. It was a really nice book about friendship and life. It hits close to home with the subject of cancer, so I felt for these characters and know what they were going through. I liked how we were able to learn about each character and how they all tie together. I think what Dorothea Benton Frank said about this book is true. It was "a deeply felt and beautiful story"!
    • 4/5
      I received this book from Librarything and loved the idea of the storyline. After reading it, I found that the author wrote this story after going through a similiar situation several years ago in her own neighborhood. That made it even more touching for me. The story takes place over 1 1/2 months in the lives of Paisley, the woman with cancer, and her neighborhood friends. The story mostly takes place in current time with a few flashback chapters to give you the backstory. The storyline flows easily between characters and I was easily able to identify with Andrea and Ginger in the story. I think as you read this novel you would find yourself fitting your own friends into the characters' identities.At just 335 pages, this could easily be a weekend read and would be an excellent choice for book clubs. My copy also came with discussion questions in the back of the book. There are a lot of themes that would lead to great discussions including death, grief, friendships, alcoholism, marriage, parenting, and self-identity.This novel is heavy in dealing with the knowledge of death looming, but there are stories mixed in that will make you laugh. There isn't anything shocking or too climatic to make you drop your jaw, but the story of the women itself will keep you turning the pages.I loved the roll of the feather boa in the story. It makes me want to run out and buy a feather boa for me and my daughter. As the story said, "Drape it across your shoulders and dance, girls, and all the cares of the world will go away." Every girl needs her own feather boa. I also got a good laugh when one of the characters tells her teenage son, "Anyone with something dangling between their legs doesn't need something dangling from their earlobes." I am going to have to remember this line.....just in case.I also loved how all the friends and the whole neighborhood came together in one final gift and show of support for Paisley. It was finally one way that everyone could feel like they were "doing something". Everyone feels helpless when someone is hurting. There is only so much food you can make, errands to run, and hugs to give. But, to truly DO SOMETHING makes everyone feel like they made a difference. Reading the story makes you think about how you will be remembered. How do your friends view you? What is the measure of a person's life? What is the measure of your life? I gave this 4 stars mostly because I loved how the author took a real situation and turned it into a beautiful story of friendship.
    • 3/5
      Thank you, Harper Collins Publishers, for the copy of the novel. It was a good read about friendship, jealousy, and loyalty, but I expected it to be more of a tear-jerker.
    • 5/5
      An excellent book about four women's reactions to the news of their friend and neighbor's terminal illness. Great contemporary women's fiction.
    • 3/5
      It was a decent book. I got through it just fine. But it didn't grab me, make me want to know what's going to happen, what did happen. Just a book about a bunch of women in a neighborhood. Nothing too exciting.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book. The characters were refreshing in that they weren't the sappy and gushing women you so often read. The variance in ages was a nice touch to show the different perspectives as well. Overall, I would read this author again.
    • 3/5
      After I read this book, I actually had to take a little time to think about it before writing a review. I liked the book,but I don't feel like I really got a chance to know the characters very well, and what I did learn, I didn't necessarily like.This book did make me take a hard look at how an illness among friends and acquaintances may affect everyone around them. I think we all would like to think we would jump right in and help in any way that we could, but at the same time, it drives home our own mortality.The Art of Saying Goodbye is well worth the read and will make you take a hard look at yourself and your relationship with your friends.
    • 5/5
      In spite of the seriousness of the title and the novel, this was an excellent book that I highly recommend. Ellyn Bache has a seemingly great understanding of the female personality as they age. She knew what it was like to be 30 and then 40 and also over 60 as her character Iona. She also knows grief and the ways we handle it differently....no judgement given. Because of her 5 main characters, she delves into the desires and disappointments of marriage and children and the want of a perfect job. She understands the desire to be respected bec. of work. I loved the character of Julianne and her ability to detect illness. There were beautiful phrases spread within the story like 'WHEN ALL THE TIME, FROM EVERY PORE, IT WAS AS IF HER SKIN WERE CRYING'. Sure to be a hit with readers.
    • 3/5
      The Art of saying Good bye is about what is important to you home ,family and taking the time to do what is important to you. Each of the characters brought a different importance to the story. The story show us that even though we are all difference we all have the same things in common. I think each of the characters showed qualities we each possess and struggle with and how a life changing event can change us.
    • 4/5
      A women dies at 46 from pancreatic cancer. This story tells her last few weeks and the lives she touched in her suburban neighborhood. As the story unfolds secrets are revealed. The author reminds us that the impact one person can have on the people near them cannot be underestimated. Some may categorize this novel as "chick lit", but it is a touching and thought provoking read that is well worth the time.