It was motion and stillness both at the same time! The story altogether transported me into another realm, sucking me into a nimbus, slowly lulling me into stillness, while the world around me moved! This book means so much to me. Because not only did it wake up the avid reader inside me, but it also inspired me to pen greyness. Tepid. Flawed. And real. Emily Perkins shows how vulnerable a man’s world can be beneath that stone-face, funny mask and heroic aura! How much does becoming a father mean to a man! But all through she maintains a fine distance from raw, naked emotion. No, it does not hit you in the eye, the emotion in this book. It gently tugs at your heart strings and tells you that it is all right to be vulnerable, to dream with the lurking shadow of it breaking to pieces following suit. For there would be someone who would find you beautiful, even at the rock-bottom of the pit!
Inside my apartment, I lived with Ann as long as I read this book. I could see her, vividly, pace through my living room, trapped in her own imagination. Ann, the female lead of the book suffers beautifully! Sometimes you’d want to just reach out, bury her between the contours of your womb and comfort her! Sometimes you’d want to chide her for being too strong. And throughout the book you'd want to scream at her that she is ruining her own marriage by living in that world she built inside her head! The book explores the possibility of confinement existing within our own mind and how during vulnerable stages we succumb to it. Ann is beautifully complemented by a husband who suffers from reality! The ocean of love that he possesses for Ann overwhelms him and fills him with gratitude at the same time. His world is airy, bright and beautiful because of this woman and he is grateful that she is his wife. It is this selfless gratification that warms you up to Tom Stone. Not his persona.
You see Ann’s beauty through his eyes, not the handsome chiseled face and perfectly crafted features kind of beauty but stayling alive enough to feel hurt, pain, discomfort and yet not lose your strength EVER, kind of beauty! You worry with this man when his wife starts hallucinating and you feel equally exhilarated when he finally becomes a father! You feel his loss when his wife dies and you mourn while he relishes the moment! This book drew my attention to something important that has always been ignored, that only in confinement shall you experience the greatest sense of freedom and only in the eye of the storm would you realize your true potential!
