So Lucky: A Novel

A fantastic, vivid novel from an author who knows what she's writing about. Read it if you like suspense, or if you're trying to understand how privilege works (specifically ableism, with a sprinkling of homophobia), or if you want a book that's unique. Particularly good for those dealing with MS (either in a loved one or in yourself). This book made me feel seen, as few narratives about people who are disabled do. I am angry, and I screw up, and there aren't any easy answers. . . And none of that makes me worth any less.

As the author of Hild, Nicola Griffith has pride of place among the books in my heart. Now she had a new story. Many things will be said of So Lucky, her latest novel, but I'm sure that brave and brilliant will be high on the list of adjectives. While the character of Mara may share much of her experience with the author, as fiction, the narrative never falters. The story is told in first person and is so compelling that whenever I had to leave the book, it was like wrenching away from my own life. I can't recommend this novel highly enough. Get it. Read it. It's luminous.

This short novel is very much a first-person narrative: we're inside the protagonist's often angry thoughts (she's a fierce, effective, AIDS activist, and copes with her health crisis as she does with external threats, by fighting back), and experience the bumpy road to her coming to terms with MS--complicated by an external threat that seems gratuitous (social media has made her and other gay fellow-MS sufferers vulnerable to thugs), but is all too credible in our ugly historical moment. As always, the incidental pleasures of Griffith's prose--her acutely sensuous response to physical stimuli, to the beauty of all live things, make up for the anger and grief. One of these pleasures is a newly adopted kitten, the other is a tenderly portrayed ex-lover.

Nicola Griffith's prose is always spectacular, and in SO LUCKY it's utterly incandescent. This is a personal story -- semi-autobiographical, white hot with anger and intelligence, with undeniable, ungarnished, unvarnished truth and insight in every paragraph. I read it all in one sitting; you will want to do the same.Nothing gives me more joy in life than a book that's un-put-downable. SO LUCKY is one of those books. I couldn't stop reading even as it flayed me raw.

This book messed me up, but in the best way. I've got a certain amount of medical anxiety that this book has very specific medical details in abundance, so it's not a huge surprise that this book got me in my anxiety and didn't let go through the whole of the book. However, I finished it in spite of my anxiety, and can honestly say that I'm glad that I read it. Nicola Griffith is a masterful writer, and this book is rich, personal, and arresting. It deals with living in our culture both as a woman, a queer person, and as a disabled person, and the different sorts of helplessness and discrimitation that come with each. It's eye-opening, and honestly I think everyone should read it. There are very few books that have taught me so much in so few words. It's also really short, which means you have zero excuse not to read it.

I started this book around 6pm and put it down -- finished -- around 9:30 the same evening. I'm not normally a fast reader, but with this story, I couldn't stop. You WILL learn something. You'll hear a story you don't often hear. (Or maybe it's that we haven't been looking to listen.)Buy this book, read it, then give it to someone else. It should be read, by many.

I thought I knew what this book would be. But it far exceeded my expectations. I think I have to sit with it a while before I know how to talk about it. Highly recommend.

I read this book on one flight because I couldn't put it down. This should be required reading for anyone in medicine - it gives an authentic, moving and unsettling look into the world of the disabled.

So Lucky by Nicola Griffith makes you think about everything you take for granted in everyday life, the simple things like not tripping when you walk, being able to walk down the street. In a very short period of time So Lucky’s protagonist has her wife move out to live with another woman, gets diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and as a consequence, loses her job. She goes from a martial artist who knows she can protect herself to becoming fearful and sure that she cannot.There is an underlying anger and bitterness that runs through the whole book. Mara’s life has become about loses, with very few gains. She has lost her wife to divorce, her new potential romance has left the country, she must use mobility devices to get around, she is fired from her job, she requires drugs to alleviate symptoms of the drugs that treat MS. It is no wonder that that she is angry and bitter. Her gains she has actively had to seek out and make for herself. Not liking the available support group, she utilises her previous experience running not for profit to build a community for those like her who have MS, finds supports that they can access and goes around doing talks to drum up funding and awareness of her new not for profit.Griffith is writing about some of her experiences with MS and this makes for a much more nuanced story. The metaphor of the shadow that is following her and the robbery/murders that are steadily making their way closer and closer, adds to the urgency to find the right combination of pills, the right therapy that will help Mara live a “normal” life. You can feel the bitterness of this incurable diagnosis, the hurt of knowing that you will never get better, that you can only manage it; this only comes with writing from experience. Griffith utilizes quite a few examples of how people treat and react to those with disabilities to emphasize the frustrations these individuals feel. From being called too emotional when calling out discrimination, to being completely dismissed in the airport and talked over, to being dismissed as no longer being able to what they were once able to and as a consequence dismissed.Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. I found the story very compelling. Mara has so many things happen to her in a short period of time; divorce, MS diagnosis, her new love interest moves to the other side of the world and then she is fired from her job. The ever present but never quite seen shadow that follows her around is a metaphor for the looming and ever increasing loses that accompany MS. Griffith highlights several ableist stereotypes that Mara faces within her writing.

Compelling and illuminating read written with Griffith's skill & finesse.

Tellement, TELLEMENT bien. Ça se lit tout seul, c'est super bien écrit, c'est intéressant et drôle et ça fait du bien.