This was a lovely Christmas gift. I did really enjoy it, despite how incredibly sad it is. It's the type of sad we feel when we meet a character that is under the impression that they have wasted their life and its too late to leave an imprint. Personally, I don't think anyone is pointless but I know its easy to feel that way (I do too at times).
Mathea Martinson, a woman who is older than dirt, and who has been crippled by her shyness and social awkwardness, reads obituaries daily and tries to figure out how she can leave her mark (burying a time capsule, venturing outside more, etc) . The book is from her point of view, so you can really appreciate why she doesn't take leaps, avoids people, or doesn't follow through with an idea. She is so stricken with being social that she's even afraid to ask a grocery clerk to open a jar of jam she'll never be able to open.
Even though its sad, there are some funny parts that really push this small but somehow powerful book along.
This was a translated piece, so some points may have been lost in the language change..because it's not a linear book. It jumps around a bit, and I didn't even realize it was doing that until the end. I think this is a re-read for me at some point because I want to really appreciate it without trying to figure out what's in the past and what's in the present.
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