Waterlemon is the true story of a sudden unwelcome interruption to an ordinary happy life. One perfect spring day, when newspaper columnist Ruth Ritchie was playing at home with her three-month-old baby, she received the call that her husband had been in a road accident, and was being airlifted to hospital.
Waterlemon charts the days, months and years that follow in a narrative about trauma that is dark, subversively funny and totally different to anything you may have read before. As we follow her husband and her family struggle to return to an elusive normality, we witness the astonishing amount of love, courage, anger, good cooking and black humour that comes out of surviving, coping and living with brain injury.
Waterlemon is as surprising as it is moving, as Ruth turns the survival genre on its head.
Waterlemon, by Ruth Ritchie
My Husband suffered a similar accident, although not cycling, with the same odds. I sobbed several times throughout the book as I knew what it felt like. Unfortunately for my family and I, we are not as wealthy as the Blompieds, and financially we have suffered. Money aside, I would not wish this type of suffering on any one or their family. I have four children who lament the loss of the Father they knew and frequently wonder who the Man at the dinner table is.
All told it is a good book, a bit too much 'washing of dirty family laundry' in public for my liking, but even this is very identifiable with, just yuck to read. I would recommend this book to all who know of someone who has been there. It may help you understand.
CB
Guest, 16/08/2010
