Title:
Save Send DeleteAuthor: Danusha V. Goska
Author's Web site link:
http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/ Genre or category: Memoir
ISBN
ISBN-10: 1846949866
Reviewed by Kincaide originally for Amazon.
Publisher and
reviewer's rating: Five starsHappened upon this book quite by accident.
A fortuitous one at that.
It's been too long since I've read a non-formulaic,
original work, let
alone one that openly bares the soul of the author and
makes you
respect them for honestly portraying life as filled with shades
of
grey instead of being just black or white. Perhaps it was David
Eggers
"Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" that last moved me this
way.
Ms. Goska's intelligent and eloquent use of the English
language
vividly and realistically conveys a broad range of human
emotions,
including, wonder, inquisitiveness, love, lust, anxiety,
exhilaration,
disappointment, anger, loneliness, fear and hope. Mira, who
represents
Ms. Goska in this story, is the protagonist. She invites us along
on a
private journey of discovery as her act of reaching out to a
stranger,
a famous academic, takes her on a long road of self
exploration,
winding down many paths. Ultimately, breaking from the day to
day
correspondence, the book fast-forwards several years into the
future
with Mira reflecting back on their intense relationship.
Told
in the form of a series of first person emails, we are allowed to
see only
Mira's side of the correspondence with the academic, Lord
Randolph
Court-Wright. In this book, Lord Court-Wright is a famous
atheist. Mira, on
the other hand, is a devoutly Catholic professor,
who lives modestly in
relative obscurity. Although their discussion
initially begins as a heated
debate over the existence of God, it
quickly goes well beyond that, and shows
how individuals relate,
interact, fight, fall in love and seek meaning
through themselves and
through others. Since readers only see only Mira's
correspondence,
Lord Court-Wright is viewed through her reaction to his
emails. Each
passage is time stamped. At the end of each missive are
ubiquitous
"Save Send Delete" choices that modern-day readers used to email
for
daily communication find comfortably familiar. Cleverly, Ms.
Goska
shows hesitation, doubt and clarification through both the time of
the
communication and Mira's choice of whether a particular email
is
saved, sent or deleted.
Ms. Goska inserts one other active
character into the story, Amanda, a
friend from a completely different
background. Amanda is famous in her
own right, but shares a special
connection with Mira. Correspondence
between Amanda and Mira is visible to
the reader, allowing Ms. Goska
to flesh out the Lord Court-Wright character.
When Amanda asks
questions about him, Mira dutifully answers in her own
quirky way -
revealing insight about both Mira and Lord Court-Wright. Since
the
book is ascribed to true events, I assumed while reading it
that
Amanda is a real person. In retrospect, I'm not sure if she is
real,
or whether she is a plot device to more fully embellish the
atheist
Lord Court-Wright, referenced, but otherwise unseen.
Readers
are bound to walk away from this book with many different and
perhaps
conflicting perceptions of the message. I grew up Catholic,
converted to the
Episcopal Church as an adult, and am now agnostic.
The debates over the
existence or non-existence of a supreme deity
mirror the questioning that I
personally struggle with when thinking
about one all-knowing being. Having
never knowingly experienced the
tangible physical manifestation of a divine
force, I don't have the
same perception that Mira describes in her emails
with Lord
Court-Wright. However given the vastness of the universe, I find
it
arrogant to think that there is not some force that had a hand
in
bringing our small little corner of the universe into creation.
Ms.
Goska allows and acknowledges doubt, debating respectfully, but
still
forcefully arguing through Mira, that god exists. There are
moments
when certain passages drag on, belaboring theological points that
that
can be made in a more succinct manner. Ms. Goska can be forgiven
this
infrequent tendency towards elongating certain sections (or perhaps
I
should be chastised for a short attention span) because when viewed as
a
whole, the book is a gem.
The undercurrent of the book is the budding
love story and saga of two
incredibly talented individuals that are
unexpectedly brought
together, and that support, challenge, chide and at
their core, care
for each other. This particularly struck home for me, as I
have also
experienced a deeply moving, intellectual and emotional
relationship
with an unattainable member of the opposite sex. Readers don't
need to
personally experience this however, as the message however of
finding
meaning and purpose by and through interaction with others
is
universal.
"Save, Send, Delete" is a highly intelligent,
thought-provoking book
that keeps the reader engaged and rooting for a happy
ending until the
very last page. Such a richly nuanced portrayal of a deeply
moving,
human story deserves to catapult Ms. Goska out of obscurity and
into
the limelight as one of the most powerfully authentic authors of
our
time.
-----
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