250. And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:  Fredrik Backman

Genre:  Fiction, Short Stories, Novella

97 pages, published November 1, 2016

Reading Format:  Audio Book

 

Summary

Bestselling author Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove and Bear Town) has written a moving, poignant short novella about the end of life transition faced by the elderly through the characters of Grandpa and his grandson Noah.

 

Quotes 

“Our teacher made us write a story about what we want to be when we’re big,” Noah tells him.

“What did you write?”

“I wrote that I wanted to concentrate on being little first.”

“That’s a very good answer.”

“Isn’t it? I would rather be old than a grown-up. All grown-ups are angry, it’s just children and old people who laugh.”

“Did you write that?”

“Yes.”

“What did your teacher say?”

“She said I hadn’t understood the task.”

“And what did you say?”

“I said she hadn’t understood my answer.”         

 

“Those who hasten to live are in a hurry to miss.”

 

“Isn’t that the best of all life’s ages, an old man thinks as he looks at his grandchild. When a boy is just big enough to know how the world works but still young enough to refuse to accept it.”

 

“You were a busy man, ” she whispers, regret filling every word because she knows she bears the same guilt.

“And now Ted is a busy man,” he says.

But the universe gave you both Noah. He’s the bridge between you. That’s why we get the chance to spoil our grandchildren, because by doing that we’re apologizing to our children.”

 

“Almost all grown adults walk around full of regret over a good-bye they wish they’d been able to go back and say better.”

 

“…this would be my greatest fear: imagination giving up before the body does. I guess I’m not alone in this. Humans are a strange breed in the way our fear of getting old seems to be even greater than our fear of dying.”

 

My Take

Having really enjoyed Fredrick Backman’s A Man Called Ove and Bear Town, I was looking forward to listening to the audio version of this short novella.  It did not disappoint.  Poignant, sweet, heartwarming, and sad.  It makes you think about how wonderful life is and how sad it will be say goodbye at the end.