Small Rain
Small Rain ~ Garth Greenwall
It’s the summer of 2020 in a small Iowa college town, and the unnamed narrator of Small Rain suffers an infrarenal aortic dissection, a rare vascular condition where a tear forms in the inner layer of the abdominal aorta below the kidneys. It is incredibly painful and very dangerous. The majority of the novel takes place in the ER and ICU.
He’s hospitalized for about two weeks, during which time he meditates on art (especially poetry, he is a poet and teaches at the nearby college), the frailty of the body, intimacy, and the pros and cons of domesticity.
Small Rain is such a beautiful novel, focusing on the meaning of life in the small, gentle moments. It’s a violent book in that an infrarenal aortic dissection is violent, and the pain is overwhelming. I liked how the narrator’s mind wanders, from memory to music to affairs of the body and the heart, and is brought back to the physical now by the events at the hospital. Time to take a pain pill. Time for a blood test, a CT scan, visiting hours, whatever. I’m not sure how to describe this book, other than to say it’s immersive and thoughtful and really good, and I’m glad Nance mentioned it in a comment as a book deserving of its place on her favorites shelf. Highly recommended.
7 Comments
Nicole MacPherson
Hmmm….I’ll make a note of this but I’m not sure if I’ll read it or not!
J
I think you would really enjoy it Nicole.
nance
I really love this book. It’s a beautifully told story about love, patience, and finding gratitude and happiness in small moments and gestures. It’s a lesson in each of these themes. The emotions felt very true, and I was actually sad when I finished it because my time with these characters was over.
It’s a short but powerful read. I thought about it long after I closed the book and placed it on my Favourites Shelf. I’m so glad you liked it as well.
J
I’m so glad that you mentioned it in a comment, because I really loved it!
StephLove
I spent two years in an Iowa college town (grad school) and a lot of time in hospitals for non-covid-related heatlh problems North had that summer, so perhaps it would ring a bell or two.
J
I suspect it would totally ring some bells. At least at my library, it was available via Libby to listen to right away.
NGS
I trust your judgment, but this book sounds like a snoozefest. Stuck in a hospital? Wonderings about poetry? Hm.