Readings on living and Dying – 1 – Salvation Creek

Alan writes – Over the last couple of weeks I’ve dipped into some books that focus on living and dying. Or, should I say more correctly, they are books that encourage us to ‘face up to our dying so we may really live’.  This is the first of six postings that introduce books and themes about living and dying.

Salvation Creek: An Unexpected Life (2006) by Susan Duncan

When your husband and brother die of cancer within three days of each other anguished grief sets in for Susan Duncan. A few months later she too is diagnosed with cancer. This is her story. The story of a woman who found the courage to walk away from a successful career and begin again, beat the odds in her own battle for survival and find a new life - and love - in a tiny waterside idyll cut off from the outside world.

At 44, Susan Duncan appeared to have it all. Editor of two of Australia's top selling women's magazines, a happy marriage, a jet setting lifestyle- the world was her oyster. In shock, she zips on her work face and soldiers on until one morning eighteen months later when she simply can't get out of bed.

Her story is told with transparency, honesty and vulnerability as it leads the reader through a kaleidoscope of emotions that are fused together through humility and humour. Humility and humour those two wonderful qualities of our common humanity. And all three ‘H’ words taken from the root word ‘humus’ or earth. In these –humanity, humour and humility – our earthiness and mortality are owned. This is what Susan’s story invites us to see. To see that life is about being. That nature (being in and with nature) and relationships (being with others we love) are the richest of life’s gifts. Gifts that draw out our humanity in humility and humour. Through them we find who we are, we touch our spirituality and life is good – very good.

What have others said:

'A wonderful read. Ruthlessly honest, passionate, gutsy and funny. I couldn't put it down.' - Maggie Tabberer.

‘It is Duncan's unflinching and meticulous depiction of what really happens when humans struggle with grief, illness and mortality that ultimately makes this book sing... her accounts of dogs, food, wildlife, friends, illness and death are evocative, honest and dryly funny, while her stories of the frail helping the frailer are gut-wrenchingly moving.’ - The Australian

‘Duncan is a vibrant writer who brings alive her surroundings with great gusto and beauty’ - Sunday Telegraph

Heartbreaking, funny and searingly honest. Duncan never flinches from the truth.

Sometimes you have to risk everything to find the only thing you need.

Comments

[len]

Oddly, I was thinking about this last night in terms of some films I've seen.. or reseen.. lately. The first was "What About Bob?" Remember "death therapy?" The other was V for Vendetta... where V puts the fearful young woman through a trial that forces her to encounter her deepest fears.. so that she may finally live free...

[aj]

thanks for the comment Len..i haven't seen 'what about Bob'. is it worth seeing?

[Jill Shaw]

What About Bob? has too many good themes and discussion points to name! Highly recommended, and not painful to watch.

Also, my book club at Massey Uni is reading Salvation Creek. I've passed this link on to them.