The Last Act of Love by Cathy Rentzenbrink

The Last Act of Love is one of those books that followed me around, as some do from time to time. When scrolling online for books to read I came across it from recommendations. Later, I saw it highly recommended in a couple of magazines, and it further plagued me in my Amazon basket. I then came across it in a charity shop, but reminded myself of the dark and sobering themes and put it back, but a few weeks later I bought it and set aside a few hours so that I could stop the haunting.

For those unfamiliar with the book, it is written by Cathy - in 1990, her brother is involved in a hit and run car accident, and we follow the family from desperately wishing for his survival, to years trying to get him out of an unconscious state.

Undoubtedly, Rentzenbrink can write. To me, she has a clear writing style that I could pick out in a line up, probably months after having read this. In my opinion, her writing style is cathartic, almost calm – the line between factual and emotional are cleverly side-stepped and at the same time interwoven. The weaving between childhood anecdotes, to newspaper articles to progression of her life is also clever, and the book flows nicely.

What else can be said about this book? It was well written, and it was an interesting albeit heart breaking tale. However, the message of the book for me was potentially troubling. Whilst the writer ultimately has a positive outlook, the subject matter is of course devastatingly sad. It could be seen as positive in the manner that it concludes with herself and her family as happy as they could possibly be in the circumstances. It shows you that grief and sadness do not last forever. If the subject matter resonates you – if you are going through something similar, or you are in the depths of depression; then the take home from this book is likely to be more positive for you than others. I find the “take home” from the book troubling, as it is not overwhelming positive, but at the same time, it couldn’t be – a true to life tale will rarely have those neat ends and the end of life is not resoundingly positive.

This is a book where you cannot doubt the quality and power of the subject matter or the writing but at the same time I find this novel difficult to categorise as a “good” or “bad.” For example, it is not the sort of book you would read on the beach on holiday; as for as uplifting as it can be, the subjects it deals with are grief, trauma and in some ways injustice – not exactly light reading. Furthermore, I believe the fact that I was able to set aside a few hours for this book and read it in one sitting has a bearing on my inclination to place this book further towards the “good” spectrum of books. One day grappling with the heart breaking subject matter is potentially preferential to reading chapters at a time over weeks.

So in summary? An important, moving book to read, as someone who studied undergraduate law it was morally and legally interesting in many ways, however I do think you have to be a certain kind of person, in a certain kind of place literally and figuratively to read this. However, this is no bad thing, and whilst I would not read this again, it is certainly – to use the cliché phrase – thought provoking. Cathy Rentzenbrink certainly has a cathartic and defined literary voice which enables you to whip through the tragic (yet somehow elevating) novel in a matter of hours, however this book does have its time and place more so than others.