Rachel Joyce has done a remarkable job of intertwining two completely separate books into feeling almost like you are reading one story. After reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and enjoying it for the beautiful writing style and descriptive passages where you felt like you were walking along side Fry as he walked to see his old work associate Queenie, this story just further develops the story. Where the story of Harold Fry ended without complete answers, The Love Song of Queenie Hennessy adds in the details and fleshes out the tale.
Again, Joyce writes with beautiful attention to detail. Queenie writes to Fry about creating a garden behind her seaside cottage. You can see the garden as Queenie sees it in her mind, ",,,the rock pools, the winding paths, the shell beds, the figures, the wind chimes, the flowering gorse topiaries that smelt of coconut when the sun was on them."
Queenie is spending her last days in the hospice, as she is dying from cancer. When Sister Mary Inconnu, one of the nurses caring for her, comes in one morning with a peach, Queenie tries to remind her that she cannot eat. The Sister has been helping Queenie write her memories down so that if she is not there when Harold Fry finally arrives her story will be there for him to read. She offers her the peach to distract her from the long wait for Fry. You can almost taste a peach as Queenie is encouraged to eat it. The description of the peach paints an almost sensual picture in the reader's mind, "I stroked the velvety red blush if its skin. I felt the give of its flesh as I pressed it with my fingertips. I traced the well-defined crease. The dimple at its center where once the fruit was attached to a stem, a tree, and grew there. This may sound strange, but I forgot briefly that you could eat a peach as well as touch it."
Then of course there is the interplay between Queenie waiting for Harold Fry as walks to visit her and Fry walking to see her. This could have easily have been written in alternating chapters in one book, but that might have taken away from the wonderful drama of each story. This book is cleverly written to remind you of the story of Harold Fry as the letters and notes he sends arrive at the hospice. There Queenie and the other people living out their last days wait with anticipation for each letter. The Sisters read the letters and post them on a bulletin board. The reader is reminded of locations and events that Fry encountered on his route. In this novel, as a letter from is delivered from each location, Queenie recounts more details of the story of their relationship.
Life tries to stand still while the patients in the hospice wait for Harold Fry to arrive. In the first book Harold Fry attracted a following and made an impact on peoples' lives as he was walking. Again in this book, Fry walking to see Queenie has an impact on the people in the hospice with her. This is a story of how the actions of each individual affect others around them in both positive and negative ways. That love is an emotion that can change lives and every act of kindness has repercussions.
A tender, feel good love story.
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