by Dannie
Abse (Welsh-Jewish poet-physician b. 1923)
from the Guardian: “There are no chapters in this book, just
dates. It is the story of one man's year as he struggles to make sense of a
life without his wife of more than 50 years. The book opens with the obituary
of Joan Abse, killed instantly in a car crash in June 2005. Throughout the book
her husband will recall countless details of the accident that took "in
one unpredictable moment, my lover, my ally, and my friend". You yearn for
the respite of a chapter break, but there are none, just as there is "no
happy ending". The reader has to come to terms with that, as does Abse,
this famous poet and doctor, who carries on giving readings and attempting to
watch football but whose mind is always occupied in recollection. There is some
humour, and inconsequential details, practicalities and outbursts. Accounts of
buying trousers, walking in the park and seeing friends are interspersed with
memories of Joan and others; and with poems, anecdotes and stories which seem
to appear in random order, as in a commonplace book, but which beautifully,
painfully convey the intertwining filaments of two lives.”
 |
| Joan Mercer Abse |
Note: This was a
moving and eloquent journal starting a few months after Abse’s wife Joan’s
death in a motor vehicle accident. Each
of us grieves in her own way, and this is another piece to the puzzle. Reading
The Presence is like having a conversation with an insightful human being who
is a word-smith and a knowledgeable physician-healer.
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