...what fascinated me most about the Book of Two Ways was how comforting it would be to have a map to reach the afterlife. Even the Ancient Egyptians recognized that knowledge was the difference between a good death and a bad one. [p. 211]
The Book of Two Ways is an ancient Egyptian text is a map of the underworld, describing two routes to the afterlife -- by land or by water -- and the lake of fire and knife wielders that lies between those paths. The Book of Two Ways is a novel about Dawn, a 'death doula', who helps the dying towards a good death: and it is about her marriage to physicist Brian, her youthful affair with archaeologist Wyatt, and her daughter Meret.
The novel opens with a plane crash, and then seems to split into two timelines: 'water/Boston', in which Dawn struggles with her husband's potential infidelity (he's been targetted by a student), and 'land/Egypt', in which Dawn sets off for Cairo to see Wyatt again. There are several passages describing Everett's 'multi-world' theory of quantum physics, implying that there are versions of Dawn splitting off at each choice she makes. There's also a great deal of Egyptology, which made me happy: and a certain amount of misogyny in that Dawn's original theories about the Book of Two Ways, and how it's positioned in tombs, have been claimed by Wyatt.
This was an interesting read, though Dawn is not always a likeable character. Actually, all three of the main characters (Dawn, Wyatt and Brian) behave badly at one point or another: dishonesty, secrecy, pettiness. But that is what humans do: and Dawn's behaviour in her personal life is somewhat balanced by her care for her dying clients. I especially liked the five things she tells caregivers to say to people they love before they die: 'I forgive you. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you. Goodbye.'. (The author's afterword cites sources for this, and for a great deal of the Egyptology and physics.) And I liked the parallels between her work and the treatment of the dead in Ancient Egypt. I enjoyed this more than I'd expected, though the ending is unsatisfying.
Fulfils the ‘an author 'everyone' has read, except you’ rubric of the 52 books in 2024 challenge. Picoult is a super-popular author, who is best-known for her novels about families, relationships and Big Themes. The word 'poignant' often crops up... From other reviews, I suspect The Book of Two Ways is not typical of her novels: many readers seemed disappointed or frustrated.
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