Word: deaths
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...theme of children dealing with a parent's death is timeless in literature, but in danger of being rendered trite through overuse. In The Letter Left to Me, Joseph McElroy avoids cliches by developing this theme in a unique and effective manner. The novel centers on letter from a father, written a few years before his death, to his teen-aged son. McElroy's choice of plot saves his novel from becoming another repetitive reflection on dealing with death...
Because it is the only meaningful talisman remaining to him after his father's death, every detail of its history becomes sacred. He constantly tries to recreate the letter's origins, to determine whether his mother knew about its existence before he found her with it, and to trace its journey from the safe where it was first kept to the desk drawer where it was after his father's death. He says, "I did not see my mother actually find the letter. Come across it; locate it. I'm building backwards again." Toward the end of the novel...
...also declared the end of a state of emergency imposed after Zia's death "so the new prime minister can take up her responsibility in an environment of complete democracy...
...four songs are "Dairy Queen," a hard-driving, solid rock tune, "Death Dirge," a haunting song with vocals that resemble the power found in the voice of Jim Morrison, "Sleeping Sara," a multi-paced melody with a 1960s sound, and a well-harmonized cover version of George Gershwin's "Summertime" that also has a 1960s flavor...
...Mark Twain were alive today, he would probably say, "The reports of The Harvard men's squash team death have been greatly exaggerated...