Gift of Exile -- Chapter 11
Try as he might, sleep wouldn’t take no for an answer forever. It hadn’t crept up on him or drifted over him but had clubbed him over the head. Or maybe, he thought as Sincie carefully picked her way down the slopes, it was like Curt had mentioned once about surgery he’d had years ago: no drowsiness, just looking up at the doctor one minute and ( Read more... )
The ethereal/spiritual feeling really carries through the successive parts. Although you are writing about horrendous bereavement & it feels tragic, it is not overly morose & depressing. I thought a lot about Jack somehow wanting to make contact again with Ennis (I guess as a comfort), & I like the take on it that you have Ennis's actions & feelings contributing to Jack being able to "get through". Also that it doesn't appear to mean Ennis is on his way out & it's just Jack coming to get him. I've read a couple of pieces before about Ennis taking Jack's ashes so was concerned I'd be jaded by it, but your treatise was engrossing. The references to the rites of grief & the symbolic animals seem to lend credibility to the scenario but also richness & it just seems right, along with the fact we discover afterwards that time became distorted. Makes me wonder if loved ones that have passed really have made contact, all those stories that are dismissed as cranks, etc
I get the sense that Ennis isn't magically transformed into Mr Happy (!) by the events. I think the events you described just after he found the shirts are all too believable unfortunately. The shock having turned him temporarily into just a husk.
The second meeting with Mrs Twist was a great chapter. I could feel Ennis's reaction to his admission at being "queer". A step of growth, a step of self-accpetance, a step towards being able to experience Jack again.
Sorry that was a bit all over the place. I am still processing what I have read & enjoyed.
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