In My Way, Frank Sinatra sings of a full life lived with few regrets. The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy is not such a life. Rachel Joyce introduced us to Queenie Hennessy in her earlier book, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Queenie is the catalyst for Harold’s journey of self-discovery as he walks over 600 miles to reach her before she dies at a hospice. The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy is presented as a companion, neither sequel or prequel, and I admit to having had some skepticism about how well that would work. Ms. Joyce accomplished her goal.
Queenie Hennessy has spent her life as a woman on her own, acutely aware of her motivations but unable to share her true feelings. More than 20 years ago Queenie was forced to leave her position handling the accounts at a brewery where she met and worked with Harold Fry. Under tragic circumstances, she fled as far as she could from Harold and all aspects of that life. She recast her life overlooking the sea, creating her own small world in the form of a sea garden. At death’s door, Queenie is pouring out her story in the form of a letter to Harold Fry, proclaiming her love and the mistakes she made that sent her into exile. No longer able to speak clearly, she spends hours each day scratching out her thoughts to be transcribed on an old typewriter by Sister Mary Inconnu, a volunteer who urges and inspires Queenie to complete her task.
The other residents of the hospice and the nursing sisters provide a warm backdrop to the story. Alternately acerbic and heartfelt, their individual identities come to the fore. Over the twelve weeks of Queenie’s writing and Harold’s journey to her bedside, the undertaker comes for all the regulars, one by one, until only Queenie remains.
It’s surprising that a story of unrequited love, a life of regrets and a painful death could be so beautiful. At the end of her life, Queenie is part of a warm and supportive community in ways that she hadn’t really experienced before. This novel wouldn’t be successful without hospice, a transformative way of living until the end of life.
Both sides to the Harold/Queenie coin are worth reading and sharing. In the case of Harold Fry, the title character journeys to find his life. In The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, the reader travels to life’s end with a woman who finally comes to terms with her choices.
IN A NUTSHELL
- Genre: Fiction
- Locale: England
- Time: Contemporary
- Book Group Potential: Very good
- Caveat: End of life story
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