Fifty-five-year-old high school teacher Kate Montclair has been diagnosed with brain cancer. With Glioblastoma multi form VI, her doctor says she has only "some months" to live. To Kate, the idea of going through chemotherapy and radiation seems like prolonging the inevitable. She doesn't want to suffer knowing there's no hope of surviving this terrible disease.
Our fictional protagonist makes it clear that this isn't a cancer memoir, but rather an account of her experience. And she doesn't believe there's any such thing as living in the moment, rather she likens it to "pressing one's face against the train window as the landscape whizzes by".
Kate is taken aback with her diagnosis (as one could imagine) and feels a "total existential bewilderment". She compares it to coming to the end of a foreign film and wanting to say wait, that's it? It's over? Could someone please explain to me what that was supposed to be about?
Kate spent time in Rome teaching while in her twenties. A friend and colleague from that time, Adele, now runs what she calls a Death Symposium in Washington D.C. and considers herself a "transition celebrant". Adele sees herself as a vanguard of a movement, and Kate decides to put herself in her hands. Adele will help Kate plan her "deathday" (replete with a soundtrack and hot stone massage) and assist in her suicide. Kate's friend Lisa sees Adele as a charlatan and wants Kate to fight for her life. Kate's old friend Benedict from her time in Rome turns up, too. He develops feelings for Kate and decides he can't participate in her deathday, either.
McInerny's descriptions of young Kate in 1980's Rome and her teaching friends flesh out the characters and illuminate the era. Kate had ambitions of writing and creating that got sidetracked, and we learn that young Kate got caught up in a passionate affair with tendrils rivaling those her now brain tumor. Kate's dramatic past and the characters from her time in Rome reappear in the present day and play a strong role in her impending planned demise.
The Good Death of Kate Montclair sparkles with wit and humor. Clever dialogue, end-of-life morality questions, and dramatic plotting propel the story. I'm happy to say I loved this intelligent book and highly recommend it. 5/5!
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