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Synopsis
A woman volunteer who cares for people with AIDS narrates a poignant account of the clients she comes to love in her role as a home-care aide, in a bittersweet novel about life, illness, death, and remembrance.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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I went to Ricks every Tuesday and Thursday morning. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
I went to Ricks every Tuesday and Thursday morning. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Rebecca Brown's THE GIFTS OF THE BODY really cast a spell on me, with its sober delicate style, and its no-nonsense but very humble approach. It is incredibly hard to write about the emotions involved in taking care of people who are sick, but Brown does this by allowing her narrator to remain almost anonymous, and the only way she is revealed is through what she does for people, the simple yet startlingly intimate services she performs for people--from giving baths to cleaning kitchens to just being there to have a meal with them. These acts of kindness, although performed by someone who is paid to be there, become glimpses of hope, just glimpses though, which makes them even more poignant that extravagant "heroic" narratives about "Saving Lives." The narrator is not saving lives, as much as helping people to stay comfortable as the ravages of disease take them past comfort into a terrible region of pain. The sentiments in this book are toned down almost to a purity of spirit: there is deep feeling, but not of the variety most people are used to. The depth comes from the frankness and business-like accuracy of the narrator, the way people come and go, the why finally she just has to quit for a while just to stay sane. This book is amazing, and should be read by everyone, but especially by people who work with people who are disabled, sick, who need care.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Fay Thompson
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I read a chapter it did not grab me so, this has failed for me. I was expecting more from this book, maybe later on i may go back to reading it; right now it has not met the standards of the authors other books
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.6 out of 5 stars
8 reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best books I've read about taking care of people
31 Jan 1998
By A reader
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Rebecca Brown's THE GIFTS OF THE BODY really cast a spell on me, with its sober delicate style, and its no-nonsense but very humble approach. It is incredibly hard to write about the emotions involved in taking care of people who are sick, but Brown does this by allowing her narrator to remain almost anonymous, and the only way she is revealed is through what she does for people, the simple yet startlingly intimate services she performs for people--from giving baths to cleaning kitchens to just being there to have a meal with them. These acts of kindness, although performed by someone who is paid to be there, become glimpses of hope, just glimpses though, which makes them even more poignant that extravagant "heroic" narratives about "Saving Lives." The narrator is not saving lives, as much as helping people to stay comfortable as the ravages of disease take them past comfort into a terrible region of pain. The sentiments in this book are toned down almost to a purity of spirit: there is deep feeling, but not of the variety most people are used to. The depth comes from the frankness and business-like accuracy of the narrator, the way people come and go, the why finally she just has to quit for a while just to stay sane. This book is amazing, and should be read by everyone, but especially by people who work with people who are disabled, sick, who need care.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spare and exacting, no melodrama here.
30 April 2000
By Kristin Summerlin
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
As a respite worker, I picked this book up not expecting the author to "get it right." I was wrong. She gets it so right I found myself shaken. Brown's words express my own experiences so clearly, so plainly, and her stories are leavened oh-so-sparingly with the piquant emotions that arise in the give-and-take of working with disabled, ill, aging, dying people.
Best of all, after reading this book you will know why a person chooses -- or should not choose, in some cases -- to enter this field.
If at all possible, find the audiobook copy, read by Ms. Brown herself. Her voice, as sparing as her prose, sings with the subtlest vibration.
Understatement is the gift of her voice.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Required Reading
24 July 2005
By J. Wilkerson
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
The most honest, beautiful, and loving look at death and dying written in decades. Brown's lyric simplicity, and unasuming voice, draw us into lives and relationships with an urgency and depth that is chilling and soul-deep. This novel should be required reading; it uncovers the truth of giving.
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 8 reviews
4.6 out of 5 stars
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