Kruse's Keys: Read "The High Mountains of Portugal" to Learn About Loss and a Path Home

First, hat tip to my mother in law for passing along this terrific read to me over the holidays...I tore through it in a matter of days!

Man Booker prize winning author Yann Martel has crafted a trio of related novellas that lay bare the trauma (sometimes literally) of loss and its psychic weight that can echo across generations like a deep curse. In “High Mountains” we join the journey of three characters: a bereaved widower on a mission to find a lost african crucifix; a grieving, delusional pathologist obsessed with Agatha Christie; and an aging widower/politician who buys a chimpanzee and retreats with the animal to his family’s ancestral village. It’s in this village--in the high (non) mountains of Portugal that all three stories intersect.

Martel has created a world and tale that falls into the realm of magic realism--if you’ve read or seen his other story, “The Life of Pi”, you will have a good idea of what to expect. My jaw definitely dropped numerous times at the action that unfolded but the author tells the story with such skill that the ridiculousness of the situation only draws you in further.

See our 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 Reading Lists.

Key Quotes:

What his uncle does not understand is that in walking backwards, his back to the world, his back to God, he is not grieving. He is objecting. Because when everything cherished by you in life has been taken away, what else is there to do but object (12).

And now, how do I dare love anything? (202)

We loved our son like the sea loves and island, always surrounding him with our arms, always touching him and crashing upon his shore with our care and concern (200).

Grief is a disease (201).

Through the Eyes of the Lion: Read It To Prepare (Lusko)

Through the Eyes of the Lion: Facing Impossible Pain, Finding Incredible Power

Read it To Prepare.  This is a book about unspeakable loss but it's also a book that offers you a plan--not only for yourself but also for comforting others.  This is one of those books that you might not really want to read for fear of some type of psychic pain by association but you will be glad you did.

Lusko is a youthful pastor and it shows in writing chocked full of pop-culture references that serve to reinforce his biblical approach to pain, grief and loss.  I thought his chapter on loss to be particularly useful. When we hear about someone losing a loved one it's often difficult to know what to say or do.  Lusko argues persuasively that the most powerful thing you can do as a friend/loved one is to NOT speak and just be present.  Mourn with them. don't put on a happy face--grieve with them.  DON'T say you know how they feel or that their loved one is in a better place--don't--just be present.  Lusko also analyzes Jesus' own reaction to the death with the passing of his friend Lazarus (hint: he bellows with rage and sorrow).

Particularly apt, as well, was the Apostle Paul's description of sorrow being compared to the chaos of successive crashing waves (p. 56-7).  He relates his own experience with sorrow and the randomness and unpredictability of it where you sometimes just when you think you have a grip on it, it crashes over you and swallows you whole.

Perhaps the most counter-intuitive notion for which Lusko argues is the idea that when you are in the midst of pain is when you have the loudest 'microphone.'  For him that meant that he had to use his deep and dehabilitating pain to speak truth and share the story of Jesus with those around him.  It also meant that he had to get out of his valleys of pain to reach out to those suffering in similar circumstances.

Ultimately, this is a book that you hope you can finish and then let gather dust on your bookshelf...forever. But let's face it--none of us can go through life without losing people and suffering--this book offers hope..and a plan.

**See our 2016, 2015 and 2014 Reading Lists.