The Sweet By and By

By Todd Johnson

Book Overview

Meet five North Carolina women who are about to change the way you think about friendship. For Rhonda, a gritty, fun-loving hairdresser in tight jeans, the sights and smells of Ridgecrest Nursing Center are depressing. But before she can change her mind about working there, two residents glue themselves to her: Margaret, droll and whip-smart, with a will of iron that never fails her even when her body does, and Bernice, an avid country music fan who is rarely lucid. Together with Lorraine, their church-going, God-questioning nurse, and her daughter, April, bright and ambitious, they lock arms in courage and humor for a journey that speaks to us all--of how we live and die, of how we love and forgive.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061579513
• ISBN13: 9780061579516
• Release Date: March 2010
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.61 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

moving, funny, true--- an outstanding first novel that sees into the heart

I stayed up nearly all night reading this novel-- I cared so much about the characters that I really wanted to know what would happen next in their lives. When a snowstorm closed the office yesterday I read all day. At the end of the book I cried the best kind of reader's tears. This is a moving, very funny, and very wise book. As one of the main characters says, "Life is choosing whom and what you love"-- this book explores that idea through the interconnected lives of five women. The story unfolds as a series of vignettes, each told in the "first person" voice of one of the main characters. All of these women are imperfect human beings, flawed and endearing in their own ways. Two live in a nursing home, trying to cope with the corresponding loneliness, loss of freedom, somewhat grim surroundings, and the inevitability of becoming sicker, weaker, and less in control of their own lives. The other three main characters are younger women who interact with the elderly characters. In this somewhat unlikely setting, the author unfolds a book about love through the end of life. Elderly Margaret Clayton is much loved by her daughter Ann who visits nearly every day, but essentially she faces life with the support of the nurse who cares for her. Margaret feels very much like a real person to the reader, full of spirit and biting humor as she copes with all of the challenges and indignities of aging in a typical institution. The stark realities of aging and the discouragement she experiences are counterbalanced by her kind heart and capacity to love. We come to understand Margaret as a person who is still growing and facing new challenges through the final years of her life, even as her body and mind deteriorate. Margaret's friend in the nursing home is Bernice Stokes. Bernice does not have the same resources for coping as Margaret-- her loving son has died, and the remaining son and his wife appear to have little love or compassion for her. Bernice has a fragile, childlike mental state--- she has retreated into a life that is largely fantasy, including an extreme attachment to stuffed toys. Yet she has a devilish sense of fun-- Margaret relies upon her not only for physical support but also for the emotional energy and inspiration to face each day (and occasionally break the rules/feel just a little bit more in control of her own life). Bernice relies heavily upon Margaret's understanding and kindness, when few others understand or care for her. Lorraine is the licensed practical nurse who takes care of Margaret and Bernice. Over the course of their many years together Lorraine and Margaret develop a deep and intimate friendship. Lorraine's story unfolds through stories of her faith, friends and family, and through her thoughts as she tries to care for her patients at the nursing home. In describing the relationship between Lorraine and Margaret the author has written a profoundly successful description of real love and compassion be