THE HOUSEHOLD GUIDE TO DYING

Dry meditations on preparing for death and a trip down memory lane preoccupy the cancer-stricken heroine of a reflective, overburdened but not too sentimental story.

A mother with a past is about to be snatched away too soon from her devoted husband and female children and needs to leave matters in order, in Australian novelist Adelaide’s latest (The Hotel Albatross, 1995, etc.). The central character, Delia, doesn’t have much time left and is obsessing about preparing for her young daughters’ weddings, while needing to tie up loose ends regarding her own early life and also writing The Household Guide to Dying, the final volume in the Household Guides series related to her domestic-advice column. These jostling strands make for a choppy, sometimes chronologically confusing narrative, further fragmented by flashbacks and glimpses of Delia’s professional correspondence. Adelaide’s discursive style adds an additional gossipy dimension. However, the story of Delia’s teenage pregnancy emerges through the thicket—how her boyfriend abandoned her; how she lived in a caravan, in a small town, as a single parent; how she coped when tragedy struck. Because of her illness, Delia has trouble finishing Household Guide to Dying, but Adelaide succeeds in wrapping things up gracefully.

Despite the cluttered scenario and downbeat subject matter, the author’s witty, perky tone and insight prevail.