Errands Author:Judith Guest North of Bay City, Michigan, past the small highway town of Au Gres, past acres of sugar beets and fields of grazing sheep, the Browner family enters the slow curve in the road that leads onto a view of Lake Huron. Keith, Annie, and their three children have rented the same cottage here every summer for the past six years. They know this place l... more »ike the back of their station wagon. But a shadow has fallen over this particular trip: Keith is dying of cancer. It is a fate he has accepted. Annie however can not, will not.
Once safe inside a happy seventeen-year marriage, Annie finds her entire world turned upside down after Keith's death. Her sister, Jess, does her best to comfort Annie, only to find the boundaries of their own close relationship stretched to its limits. Consumed with grief, mounting bills, everyday tasks that seem insurmountable, and three kids that have become nagging sources of frustration, Annie fails to see that the family is beginning to come apart.
Thirteen-year-old Harry, the oldest, changes into a brooding teen, roaming the streets with a new rebellious friend; Julie, the youngest at nine, starts to lie about her whereabouts, but keeps a secret journal that reveals her true feelings; and Jimmy, sandwiched forever in the middle, can no longer take the pressure of being the peacemaker. As each child moves toward his or her own level of acceptance, a second threatening event will transform both the children and Annie, teaching them that, even with the loss of Keith, they are still a family--a different family, but one that is no less loving, real, and enduring than they had been with a father and husband in the house.
Searing in its depiction of despair, warm in its evocation of family and the fragile ties that bind them, and tempered with gentle humor and dazzling wit, Errands is nothing less than a triumph. Judith Guest strikes at the very core of loss, and has written her most extraordinary novel to date.« less
Beautiful read. I picked this up to just sit and read for a few minutes--the next thing i knew i was half way done. Hard book to put down and at times hard book to read. But it tells how a wife manages to go on when she has children and her husband dies of cancer, i believe the hardest part of the book to read for me was the knowing he was going to die and how each family member dealt with it. The book was written so well i felt like i knew this family. I would read more of this author without reseverations.
This is a very absorbing account of a families grief after their father dies from cancer. It illuminates why it is a very bad idea to try to console the grieving members by saying "Life Goes on" or "Life is for the Living!" Because life itself is just an errand on finding yur way back from loss! This is one of the best novels I have read about dealing with the process of Grief and Loss. I recommend it highly!
Excellent story about how a family can carry on when tragedy hits. Each member has to find their way, separately and together as a family unit. Touching, inspirational and I enjoyed all of it. Could barely put it down to attend to my own "errands". GinaK
Publisher's Note
"The Browner family--Annie, Keith, their three children--and Annie's sister, Jess, are in the midst of a dark thicket: Keith is dying. Guest shows us their flashes of impatience. We see how deeply they care for one another, how intricately their lives are interwoven. . . . So satisfying complex and real, so nuanced, that it seems Guest has simply opened a door and let us into a room this family inhabits".