Imagine Me Gone

Review ebook Imagine Me Gone

4.5 stars

As someone who has dealt with mental illness in his family, I found Imagine Me Gone so honest and redemptive. Adam Haslett confronts the tough questions that come with loving someone in pain: how much do you try to save someone before you have to let them save themselves? How do you act with compassion when it feels like everyone needs more than you had to begin with? Where do you draw the line between wanting someone to live for your own sake instead of their own? These questions and m 4.5 stars

As someone who has dealt with mental illness in his family, I found Imagine Me Gone so honest and redemptive. Adam Haslett confronts the tough questions that come with loving someone in pain: how much do you try to save someone before you have to let them save themselves? How do you act with compassion when it feels like everyone needs more than you had to begin with? Where do you draw the line between wanting someone to live for your own sake instead of their own? These questions and more rang through my mind as I finished this book, along with gratitude that Haslett crafted such a somber, moving story of a damaged family forever in the process of healing.

Approach this book if you can stomach sadness; avoid it if you search only for happiness in your stories. Haslett’s novel follows a five-member family that begins with Margaret and John, who marry each other in 1960s London even after Margaret learns of John’s secret, devastating depression. The rest of the book unfolds in decades and includes the perspectives of their children: troubled and frenetic Michael, who obsesses over music and racial justice, resolute middle-child Celia, who serves as the rational backbone of the family, and attention-seeking Alec, whose flair for drama hides a love that Margaret deems the most simple and unquestioning of the three. The family struggles and at times succeeds in caring for one another over many years, and they intensify their efforts to support Michael as his well-being deteriorates as more and more time passes.

The characters in Imagine Me Gone exemplify quiet resilience. Haslett imbues each member of the family with nuance and depth. They come most alive in their interactions with one another: how Celia listens to Michael’s fanatic rambles, how Margaret pays for his bills without question, how Alec attaches himself to all their problems and cannot let go. Each family member tests how deep and how far they can extend themselves for one another. Sometimes they fail, which makes them the most human of all.

I loved Haslett’s careful, genuine approach to addressing mental health and illness in this book. He avoids glamorizing any of the characters’ pain and renders them three-dimensional, giving them interests and quirks alongside their battles. He tackles the complexities of mental illness from multiple angles: Michael’s fraught and damaging dependency on medication, Celia’s profession as a therapist, and the family’s shared trauma surrounding John’s depression. Imagine Me Gone raises important questions about mental illness as the topic gains more attention in public discourse. As any good therapist would treat their clients, Haslett puts his characters first, and his compassion for them shines even when the novel itself feels shrouded in darkness.

Overall, a sad book with remarkable insight and prose. Though at first I had mixed feelings about Haslett’s detached narrative, I grew to appreciate his writing style. As a gay younger brother myself, I resonated the most with Alec, though all of these characters stole my heart in some way. Imagine Me Gone serves as my favorite novel of 2016 thus far and the closest one to receiving five stars since I finished Hanya Yanagihara’s masterpiece A Little Life . Check Haslett’s novel out if you want a poignant, thought-provoking mood dampener. …more