Mrs Death Misses Death: Salena Godden

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A rhythmic and powerful poetic meditation on death, life and love and the hidden mysteries of the universe; both playful and sombre, hilarious and human - NIKESH SHUKLA While I didn’t absolutely love it, I know there are others who may enjoy it. I think one thing that really stood out for me was Mrs. Death saying, One approach Godden used to condense the text was to turn what originally she wrote as essays into shorter poems, such as 'Mrs Death in Holloway Prison' featuring Sarah Reed's story, giving the reader time to pause, and think and to "say her name." This is a broken prose poem which begins: A family of monkeys feel loss when they lose a member of their group. The killing of Harambe! Why did they kill Harambe? Why don’t we respect and save the animals, Mrs Death? What will we do when the last elephants are extinct, Mrs Death? Who will save the turtles and the coral reefs and the rainforests? Written in half storyline, half poetic prose, Godden gives perspective of Death through the 'Grim Reapers' point of view.

The desk, when he has it in his attic room above the Forest Tavern in East London, turns out to be Mrs Death’s own, and it shares her many tales with him, the circumstances of some, the reader may recognise. Amongst other tales, there’s an interesting take on the story of a certain notorious nineteenth-century serial killer. Mrs Death Misses Death is unlike any other book I’ve ever read. It begins with humorous disclaimers of what the book is not, warning the reader against any expectations, before throwing us into verse and diary entries. Throughout the work, writer Salena Godden mixes poetry, prose and song while managing to keep the book cohesive. Brilliant, powerful, unique, this book is exhausting to read and yet beautiful to experience. I will be shouting from my window to anyone who can hear me; Mrs Death Misses Death is a masterpiece of modern literature.This is a moving and thought-provoking story about Mrs Death. She has spent eternity doing her job and she is fed up and now wants to find someone and unburden herself what with all the things she has done. So, she meets a young writer called Wolf. Who has some experience in death as she nearly died in a fire and half her family is dead? Mrs Death shows Wolf everything about death and what could have been done differently and how people lived years ago and about life. How to live life to the fullest. The story is not written in a normal sense. This story is part narrative, part poetry.

Mrs Death Misses Death is not a normal kind of book. If you come to this expecting a prose story you’ll be a little surprised with what you find here, because it’s more like a series of poems and lyrical text that comes together to tell one story, but in a way that I’ve not really seen any other books do before. The narrative follows Wolf Willeford, a ‘Biracial, Bisexual, Bigender and Bipolar’ writer, who one day just before Christmas sees the perfect writing desk in the window of an antique shop that’s closing down; a desk that they know they need to help them with their writing; and a desk that once belonged to Mrs Death. Salena Godden's debut novel is dead funny. From its opening disclaimer, the stage is set for the most bizarre and humorous exploration into death that you may ever read. The book follows Wolf Willeford, a self-proclaimed poet and the 'ghost writer’ of Mrs Death's memoir. It soon becomes apparent that as much as Wolf feels like they need Mrs Death to help them with their writing, Mrs Death needs Wolf too, she needs someone to talk to, to make her feel more human. But this also makes the book hard to read at times, because it’s not an easy topic to experience. We follow two characters who are struggling, with life, with death, and we get into their heads and see how much their existences have taken a toll on them, and whilst the book is about death it’s also heavily centred on mental health.The Gordon Burn Prize recognises literature that is forward-thinking and fearless in its ambition and execution, often playing with style, pushing boundaries, crossing genres or challenging readers’ expectations. Let's start with a couple things: this is not a novel, story or even really a narrative of any kind. Second, I skimmed the last half hoping for some semblance of an "ah-ha, I get it" moment; but sadly it never materialized. I wish this book wasn't trying to be so clever, it only worsens the blow when you find out it really isn't. It felt hollow and distracted the whole way through - dancing limply at the peripheries of any actual message or depth. She’s tired of it, tired of male pronouns taking over the world when men are brought to death just the same as women Now, If you told the 1990s me that 2020s me would be standing here today, that she would be thriving and healthy and happy and making the work she wants to make, she would not believe it. She was self doubting and self sabotaging, she was rejected and underestimated, struggling in a world that told her that her story, her voice, her work did not belong and did not matter.

The novel is written in a hybrid form including poems, letters, diary entries, playscript-style dialogues, a transcript of Mrs Death undergoing psychiatric investigation and even a chapter narrated by a desk, found by Wolf in an antique shop, a desk that provides Wolf access to Mrs Death's stories. Godden does not leave her reader dismayed as she ultimately concludes that living is a ‘glorious mess’ and knowing that we are alive should make us live as even better people. Mrs Death Misses Death is an irresistible novel which speaks equally to the act of living as it does to the inevitability of dying. Mrs. Death tells of her work, so we see death through a different lens. She’s not always crazy about the tragedy of death, the horror of death, the details of death. Godden writes of the tragedy and comedy of death. It’s a rumination on death. All the warmth and all the joy is boiled in a soup of memory, we stir the good stuff from the bottom of the pot and hold the ladle up, drink, we say, look at all the good chunks of goodness, take in your share of good times, good mSalena Godden has written a story that demands and deserves to be heard. Hypnotic and beautiful, tender and sad, Mrs Death Misses Death brings me life. Historical Look In the book Mrs. Death refers some deaths that made international news, or deaths that are still unsolved or you may not know about. I think getting a little history lesson within the book worked so seamlessly. And let’s hope that if you do kill yourself, you are well over forty years old, because to kill yourself before age forty is like murdering a stranger.