Remembering the Bones

My husband can be very astute at times. Whilst reading Frances Itani's Remembering the Bones I was raving about the book and he said, "So you like it the same way you like obituaries then?" Exactly. Nothing to do with death at all, but rather for such a celebration of life. It's The Stone Diaries without the ghost, but also something original, beautiful, gentle and lovely in its own right.

The book begins with Georgina Danforth Witley, 80 years old and on her way to meet the Queen. She has been selected, along with ninety-nine other residents of the Commonwealth who share Queen Elizabeth's birthday, to attend a birthday luncheon at Buckingham Palace. This is an unlikely event in the life of a seemingly ordinary woman. Seemingly, of show more course; if we've learned anything from obituaries it's that nobody is ordinary. Georgie has a grown daughter, Case, her 103 year old mother still living, fond memories of her eccentric, salt-of-the-earth grandmother, Grand Dan, and the ability to name all of the bones in the human body. These she memorized from her late Grandfather's 1901 edition of Gray's Anatomy. She has talked to Queen Elizabeth, like a friend, for all her life. Georgie had a "polio honeymoon" and she understands why people laugh at funerals. Once she witnessed her husband in an act of love and fell in love with him for all time.

All this she remembers while she is supposed to be lunching with the Queen. On her way to the airport, not far from her own driveway, Georgie loses control of her car and careens between road barriers then crashes down through trees and into a ravine. Broken in the wreckage, unable to move or shout and with nobody aware she is in trouble, Georgie tells the story of her life, from childhood to widowhood, putting the pieces together and struggling to keep her brain active and her attitude positive. Her journey is a struggle to "remember the bones" she once knew so well, name them and thus reconstruct herself, and her life story. Georgie's story was of her most extraordinary ordinary life, and my heart was wrung by the joy and the sadness alike.

What happens to Georgie in the end, I think, is definitely a talking point, with some interesting ambiguity. I would argue, however, that the ending is the least important thing about all of this. Though I devoured this book rather greedily, it was for Georgie's voice and Itani's prose. This narrative is so beautifully constructed the pages fly by like those on a cinematic calendar, whizzing past faster than days go, until you're at the end and you're finished; but what you're left with is a life. show less

3.5 stars

79-year old Georgie is on her way to the airport as she has been invited by Queen Elizabeth to their shared 80th birthday celebration. Unfortunately, Georgie’s car goes off an embankment and lands in a ravine. Georgie is alive, but too hurt to move from where she landed and she and her car are not visible from the road. As she waits for rescue, she goes through memories of her family and her life.

This was good. The initial crash brought me in and although the memories initially weren’t as interesting, I found it picked up a bit when Georgie got married, so I liked the second half of the story better. I also liked the comparisons to “Lilibet’s” (Queen Elizabeth’s) life and the little royal tidbits brought in that show more way. I thought it was amusing that all the women in Georgie’s family had names that shortened into “male” names: Phil, Fred (she had an Aunt and Uncle Fred when her Aunt Fred married a Fred), Grand Dan… (ok, not quite all, but most). show less

Georgie Danforth Whitley is soon to turn 80, on the same day as Queen Elizabeth. As a member of the Commonwealth, and sharing the Queen's birthdate, she has been invited to England to a birthday celebration. As Georgie leaves her home in eastern Ontario, a moment of inattention leads to her car toppling over into a ravine less than 1.5 miles from her home. Because of her fiercely independent spirit, no one (save for the Queen?) knows that she is missing.

She has been thrown from her car with some pretty significant injuries. While she determines to cope with the situation, we are treated to the story of her life in flash backs. The bones in the title refer to her childhood fascination with Gray's Anatomy from her deceased grandfather's show more study. And the bones provide the supporting framework (skeleton?) for her story.

In that story we learn much about the strong women of the Danforth family, which is quite matriarchal over the three generations. There are snippets of childhood memorization exercises sprinkled through out the book and will be familiar with readers of a certain era. There is much love, much happiness, and some devastating heartbreak in the story. But if my book group is any indicator, many readers will find the suspense of Georgie's predicament too much to allow them to take in the essence of the life story.

The writing is strong and clearly written with decent, loving, and very humanly flawed characters. Frances Itani knows well the bones of good writing. show less

Same author as "Deafening" which was a beautiful book and so is this one.
story of an 80 year old "Georgie' who drives her car over the ravine just by her house on the way to the airport. She was on her way to England to have lunch with Queen Eliz., II who she shares a birthday with. while she lies in pain after being thrown from her car, she rallies her self with stories and memories of her life.
Each story is well told. There is humor and spunk .there is attitude and humility and timeless questions we all ask ourselves in our lives. The memories of everyday events from birds at the bird feeder to stories of little girls walking on hard snow in a Canadian winter are lovingly recounted in this delightful book

What a wonderful book! This is the story of Georgina, an 80 year old Ontario woman who accidently drives her car into a ravine on her way to the airport. As she lies at the bottom of the ravine, Georgie remembers her life and we get to know her story of growing up in small town Canada.

Before the crash, Georgie was on her way to Buckingham Palace as one of 99 commonwealth citizens with the same birthday of as Queeen Elizabeth invited to a celebration. So, no one will know she is missing (except the Queen!) and there are no visible signs of the accident from the road.

Georgie relies on her memories of her family, of little ditties learned in school and of her grandfather's copy of Gray's Anatomy to keep her spirits up and her mind active show more as she waits to be rescued.

Frances Itani writes extremely well, evoking images that reminded me of my own childhood. Great stuff! show less

I liked this book better than [book:The Stone Angel], but that may reflect my increased maturity since I read Stone Angel, rather than a better story.

In setting up the main character, an 80 yr old woman (Georgie) who spends the novel lying in a ravine after a car accident recalling the events and people in her life, the author does not really make her lovable. I felt little connection with her, and didn't really care if she was found or not. In fact, I found Georgie's thoughts to Queen Elizabeth rather pathetic. Her mother, aunt, sister, and especially grandmother, seemed more interesting characters.

If you're interested in reflecting on life and living as it comes to a close, then this book may have something to offer. But that's not show more where I am right now. show less

This is a strange story of an elderly woman, George (Georgina)Danford, on her way to the airport. She has been invited to London to have lunch with the Queen and other women who share the same birthday as the Queen. However, she loses control of her car and slides off the road into a ravine. She holds on to her sanity and life by reciting the bones of the body and reliving the memories that come back to her. Frances Itani is a Canadian writer. This is the first of her work that I have read; I will certainly read more. She has a clear style. It is concise and creates a sense of voyeurism as the reader stays with George, sharing the memories, the pain and the suffering, waiting days for someone to realize that she was not on the plane to show more London. show less