Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dylan Thomas
Hagar Shipley, the protagonist is ninety years old and is as vivid, interesting and passionate as any young heroine could be. Reared in a small town by a man who wanted to showcase her as an example of his success in life, Hagar longs for freedom from these domestic ties and to be herself. She fights all her life, as a daughter, later as the wife of the untamed Bram, then as the mother of Marvin, the sidelined elder son and John, the much loved younger son who sought his love not from his mother but from Arlene, as the mother-in-law of Doris, the dutiful daughter-in-law, as the room-mate to the young Wong and as grandmother to Steven.
She finds her peace with some and with some , she remains, ’the holy terror’ till the end. She is ‘the stone angel’, hard as stone, because she hardens up her heart against all overtures of love from those around. But, we see her so tenderly full of compassion and understanding as she comes to terms with her own nature. She constantly tries to understand the complexity of her feelings, the rottenness of her severity and the utter helplessness as she cannot open herself to those around her.
The only people who see some of that hell raging inside her are the stranger Lee, the nurses in an impassionate and professional way, the young child who sees Hagar on her death bed being so entirely free of inhibitions and truly helpful and caring. Who is this puzzle called Hagar? She is so full of contradictions and torn apart by these all through her life. The tenderness and compassion with which she helps Marvin accept himself just minutes before her death is touching and wrench a dry sob or two. However, there is no sentimentality, she is a real bitch till the end, as she proves to Doris, her daughter-in-law.
Laurence has an evocative style as she moves from Hagar’s past, then to the present and then to the past again.
This story is not just about a powerful character...it is about senility and all its terrible companions. The pity of a life dependent on others, the helplessness caused by physical ailments, the desolation of being abandoned by one’s children, the shift from a state of forgetfulness to loss of memory, the childlike love for freedom from the fetters of old age, the desire for dignity in the uncouthness of old age... all are so touchingly dealt that the book demands the reader to be lost in this world of Hagar till she dies. There is an ineffable sadness as one realises that old age has its revenge on all of us...one can resist it and fight with spirit as Hagar does, or yield to the beauty of life while one lives, something Hagar fails to do. The choice is ours to make.