The Weekend by Charlotte Wood

 

Sylvie has died and her three friends are headed to her beach cottage over the Christmas break to clear it out so it can be sold.  Wendy is a professor whose books are on every college syllabus and a widow but she has Finn, the dog that Sylvie gave her.  Jude is a former restaurant owner who has carried on a forty year affair with a man who is married and can only give her a week once a year.  Adele was a famous stage actress but after a fall, hasn't worked for at least a year.  Now all in their seventies, they are all fighting off old age, some more successfully than others.

As they come together, they aren't sure how they fit without Sylvie, who had been the facilitator of the friendships.  Jude starts off furious because Wendy has brought seventeen year old Finn, who Jude thinks Wendy should have put down.  She believes that Finn will only make messes and insists that he stay outside on the deck.  Adele has just picked up the clues that tell her that her lover will be asking her to move out when she returns home after this trip.  Wendy isn't sure if she has any intellectual curiosity left, although it has been what has sustained her these many years.  

The three fuss and fight yet come together whenever anyone tries to make fun of one of them or do anything that will make the others uncomfortable or in need of help.  They are there for each other and will remain so as long as they all survive.

I picked up this book because Charlotte Wood is a Booker nominee this year.  It hits home as I'm around the same age as these women and in the past year we are starting to see our own friends sicken and deal with old age maladies.  One can't help but think of what is ahead when you start seeing disease and frailness around you.  But these women pull together and the book ends on a hopeful note.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.