[A77]⋙ [PDF] Free The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy A Novel Rachel Joyce 9780812996678 Books

The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy A Novel Rachel Joyce 9780812996678 Books

Download As PDF : The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy A Novel Rachel Joyce 9780812996678 Books

The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy A Novel Rachel Joyce 9780812996678 Books

This is Rachel Joyce's companion to her prior novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Harold’s life and his outlook on his relationship to Queenie, a colleague from work, moves the first book forward. He is startled to receive a brief note from Queenie Hennessy after she left 20 years ago, telling him she is now in hospice, but thinks of him often. Harold quickly writes a response, but becomes convinced he needs to deliver his note in person and begins to walk to her, although she is 600 miles away. His pilgrimage gives him plenty of time to contemplate his life and it is through his eyes that we come to know Queenie and her part in it. Harold sends ahead a postcard letting Queenie know he is coming.

However, when we are introduced to Queenie in this book, to her own story in her own words, she is near the end of her life and suffering from a tumor that has robbed her ability to speak. She fears she will not live to see the end of Harold's trek, so she begins her own letter to tell Harold about all the things she wished he had known. Within the hospice a French nun offers both her companionship and assistance to Queenie so she can write to Harold and tell her own story – all of it. (Taking the time to look up the translation of the nun’s name helped me understand her true function in this story.)

If you have read the first book, most of the events and characters within Queenie’s letters will be familiar, but the telling of those events here is very different. This book can absolutely stand on its own. Harold and Queenie’s lives may have been braided together, but the ways that they took them into their souls are remarkably different. And in Queenie’s book we learn much more about her than Harold would have ever known. Key to understanding her is her own statement that whenever she has been faced with unbearable choices throughout her life, her first instinct is to flee – from her childhood home, from her life at university, and eventually from Harold. We all make assumptions about others as well as ourselves that are wholly dependent on our own perspective, even if we have shared lives with someone for years. If you have read The Unlikely Pilgrimage, this is a totally different perspective on Harold and Queenie's relationship plus an introduction to characters that are thought provoking, heart tugging and at time hilarious.

Rachel Joyce is helping us see that we are all responsible for ways in which we imprison ourselves, wrapping ourselves in criticism and self condemnation, how we feed our own shame, how we lash out at the world – pushing it away, or running from it - but also that we are equally responsible for our own liberation, for welcoming beauty and love into our lives, for finding our own forgiveness, our own salvation, and how forgiving others is ultimately a grace unto ourselves.

I cannot help but believe that Joyce is familiar with Dickens and has used the thoughts behind his line, “So do the shadows of our own desires stand between us and our better angels”. There is also a prayer to St. Bernadine that ends with, “Help us to always speak …words of love over words of shame.” I believe Joyce had both in mind as she wrote this wonderful book.


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The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy A Novel Rachel Joyce 9780812996678 Books Reviews

This a companion novel for "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.". Lovely, sad, and compelling tale. Queenie is in hospice care and reflects about her love for Harold. The book includes secrets about Harold's son David, a lost baby, love, a sea garden, dancing, a cruel boss, a mysterious nun, a confession letter, friends who are dying, and more. This book is well written and has a compelling flow. Excellent. I will definating read another book by this author. Highly recommended!! This book deserves an A++++++++
What is it about?

Queenie Hennessey is in hospice and writes a letter to an old friend to notify him that she is dying from cancer. She hasn't seen or heard from him in 20 years. She received a postcard from him telling her to wait for him. While she waits, she begins writing him the letter that will explain the truth of why she left.

Is it good?

Yes! Queenie's letter is sometimes sad, sometimes angry, sometimes funny and happy. The patients at the hospice are a wonderful cast of characters, and the memories from Queenie 's past are so engaging. I found myself on the brink of tears at least twice.

You do not have to have read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, but that is also a wonderful book. They are set on the same time line and involve some of the same characters, but you can read each book individually.
This novel is intended to be a sequel to "the unlikely pilgrimage of harold frye" and to the extent that it answers questions that might have lingered after the first novel, it fulfill that function. However, "the love song....." Is much, much more. Rachel Joyce characters are flawed, somehow never reaching the potential they had hoped but I love all these people for their humanity and perseverance. As we know, Harold is walking to visit Queenie who is dying of cancer. He reasons that as long as he keep walking she won't die. The parallel story that takes place in the hospice is poignant. Miss Joyce deals with end of life issues with depth, sensitivity and humor. The hospice family become very precious. The sea garden, the wonderful caregivers, tha patients and Queenie, herself, are woven into a tale that will stay with you long after you've finished reading. Rachel Joyce is an extraordinary writer. Her characters are 'everyman' and 'everywoman'. They go through life unnoticed but there is drama and accomplishment reached as they strive to exist and cope with the challenges that life puts into their lives.
This is Rachel Joyce's companion to her prior novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Harold’s life and his outlook on his relationship to Queenie, a colleague from work, moves the first book forward. He is startled to receive a brief note from Queenie Hennessy after she left 20 years ago, telling him she is now in hospice, but thinks of him often. Harold quickly writes a response, but becomes convinced he needs to deliver his note in person and begins to walk to her, although she is 600 miles away. His pilgrimage gives him plenty of time to contemplate his life and it is through his eyes that we come to know Queenie and her part in it. Harold sends ahead a postcard letting Queenie know he is coming.

However, when we are introduced to Queenie in this book, to her own story in her own words, she is near the end of her life and suffering from a tumor that has robbed her ability to speak. She fears she will not live to see the end of Harold's trek, so she begins her own letter to tell Harold about all the things she wished he had known. Within the hospice a French nun offers both her companionship and assistance to Queenie so she can write to Harold and tell her own story – all of it. (Taking the time to look up the translation of the nun’s name helped me understand her true function in this story.)

If you have read the first book, most of the events and characters within Queenie’s letters will be familiar, but the telling of those events here is very different. This book can absolutely stand on its own. Harold and Queenie’s lives may have been braided together, but the ways that they took them into their souls are remarkably different. And in Queenie’s book we learn much more about her than Harold would have ever known. Key to understanding her is her own statement that whenever she has been faced with unbearable choices throughout her life, her first instinct is to flee – from her childhood home, from her life at university, and eventually from Harold. We all make assumptions about others as well as ourselves that are wholly dependent on our own perspective, even if we have shared lives with someone for years. If you have read The Unlikely Pilgrimage, this is a totally different perspective on Harold and Queenie's relationship plus an introduction to characters that are thought provoking, heart tugging and at time hilarious.

Rachel Joyce is helping us see that we are all responsible for ways in which we imprison ourselves, wrapping ourselves in criticism and self condemnation, how we feed our own shame, how we lash out at the world – pushing it away, or running from it - but also that we are equally responsible for our own liberation, for welcoming beauty and love into our lives, for finding our own forgiveness, our own salvation, and how forgiving others is ultimately a grace unto ourselves.

I cannot help but believe that Joyce is familiar with Dickens and has used the thoughts behind his line, “So do the shadows of our own desires stand between us and our better angels”. There is also a prayer to St. Bernadine that ends with, “Help us to always speak …words of love over words of shame.” I believe Joyce had both in mind as she wrote this wonderful book.