|
Coda
By Simon Gray
Granta Books £14 99
251 pages
Dateline: 15th February, 2009
It is hard to be objective when reviewing a book about the final months
of a man who knows that he is dying of lung cancer.
Pre-empting his doctors and readers, Simon Gray reflects on the extent
to which he is to blame for his disease having smoked sixty cigarettes
a day for fifty years.
Whatever the cause, its consequences are terrible not only for the
playwright but also his devoted wife Victoria, who has been a bit part
player throughout this fine series of diaries.
In Coda, we follow Gray during the course of a number of appointments
with a trio of doctors who eventually not only provide a diagnosis that
is far from encouraging but also, against the patient's better judgement,
give him a prognosis which offers less than a year of life. This is
pretty grim and one feels for the couple.
In such circumstances, it is very hard to know how one would react.
Simon Gray does what you would expect of him, although even he is sometimes
at a loss for words. Largely, he attempts to record his reactions and
describes bodily weakness both in London and while on holiday on Crete.
However, he still manages enough wry observations to prove that the
playwright's cynical eye is as sharp as ever.
He is not a big philosopher, eschewing deep thought about the meaning
of life, preferring to remember friends who faced similar sentences
from equally uncaring doctors.
Gray also proves that it is possible to discover new pleasures and
in particular, the life and writings of the now almost forgotten Austrian
Stefan Zweig, apparently far better known on the continent and in the
States than here.
Unlike his earlier diaries, Coda makes few references to the
theatre, although it does delve into other aspects of literary life.
There is a one fascinating section when two characters created to demonstrate
different aspects of Gray's personality begin to debate the merits or
otherwise of his writing. It is quite something that in christening
them, he is willing to call himself a Thicko and a Sicko.
The greatest pleasure is that the book ends with a double note of hope.
First, the Grays have the immense joy of attending the christening of
Toby Stephens' smiling baby son Eli as godparents and then the latest
trip to the doctor ends with the news that he might have an extra year
of life, enough to put a smile on any face.
This series of diaries has given this reader and so many others great
pleasure and it is tragic to get to the end of this final volume in
the knowledge that there will be no more Smoking Diaries and
indeed, Simon Gray's battle with cancer eventually ended last August.
Philip Fisher
Articles from 2009
Articles from 2008
Articles from 2007
Articles from 2006
Articles from 2005
Articles from 2004
Articles from 2003
Articles from 2002
Articles from 2001
Articles from 2000
Articles from 1999
Articles from 1998
Articles from 1997
|
