“Life makes eggs. Death eats eggs. Circle of life and death. It is way more complex than that but for now, all you need to know is it is about one word: eggs”
One of the quotes I enjoyed best from Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden which I read this week and wow did I love it.
This book sees death personified as an unassuming, shape-shifting elderly black woman (Mrs Death) – who is recording her memoirs and sharing her experiences with a young, London-based poet named Wolf. Wolf is well acquainted with death but is meeting Mrs Death for the first time after purchasing a second hand desk. It’s this desk that is used as a vessel for the two to journey together through time, witnessing deaths of the past and present and striking up an unusual friendship along the way as they ponder the future of humanity.
It does come with a few trigger warnings, as it quite openly references a tower block fire, the refugee crisis and several harrowing cases which have been in the press in recent years.
For me however, this book is a masterpiece. It was a book club choice, and I didn’t know that to expect until I read the blurb inside the jacket having purchased it (lovely signed Waterstones copy with gorgeous jacket and endsheets).
On the back cover there is a quote from Benjamin Zephaniah describing the author as a “Wordsmith of the highest order” which for me perfectly captures the feeling I had reading it. I found it a wonderful and quite philosophical approach to opening conversation about death. You cannot read it without reflecting on your own losses and experiences.
Considering it is a work of fiction, I found it quite powerful in its delivery of the core message that we should stop worrying about death and time, and instead just focus on enjoying life and time with those we love. That really resonated with me, as I’m sure it will with many, particularly given the events of the past year. And this made it for me a surprisingly uplifting read.
Sometimes Mrs Death misses – and we get another chance at life... but also at some point she comes for us all, so why waste our time worrying instead of living?
The author is a well-known and celebrated poet, and the style and structure of this novel really reflects its allegorical nature, in a unique mix of poetry and prose. I really loved the playful, lyrical use of language and extended metaphor. In a recent interview in The Guardian, Salena Godden described herself as a “…furious and emotional woman" [saying that] " – when things pop up I have to talk about them, vocalise them write about them, purge them” and it is that vibrant energy, that is really exploding out from this novel – reading it, I felt it would work really well performed on stage.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given its themes, this is a book that seems to be dividing opinion. Which does make for very interesting discussion, some feel its mention of murder, and current affairs are too much, blurring the line between fiction and non-fiction but I think that’s the point in a way – mirrored in the blurring of voice at times between Wolf, Mrs Death and Godden herself. The addition of these sharp interjections of reality, turn the book into a form of social commentary. For me it simply highlighted that death is an everyday reality and whilst it can be horribly cruel, and unfair - creeping around unnoticed and uninvited, it is there. Some might argue that states the obvious - yet, we're not very good at discussing it.
The book ends with six pages left blank as a mark of respect, for the reader to add to, honouring their own losses, again opening up the conversation and trying to avoid the ‘silence’ that sometimes occurs around the subject of death and someone passing.
This is Salena Godden’s first novel, and I hope to see more in the near future. I hear this book has already been optioned by Idris Elba’s production company, so I really can’t wait to see how it translates to screen.
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