Life Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue
by Spalding Gray
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Book Summary Information
Author: Spalding GrayEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-10-04
ISBN: 1400048613
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Crown
Book Reviews of Life Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue
Book Review: A loss for all of us
Summary: 5 Stars
My first thought upon hearing that Spalding Gray was missing was that he could not have killed himself. At the end of "Morning, Noon, and Night," which I was fortunate enough to see him perform in early 2002, he imagined Hell as a state in which one floats, disembodied, able to see and hear others but not touch them or interact with them in any way. This is certainly a different take on "Grandma is watching over you from Heaven." If she is watching over you, it's not from Heaven.
This book contains Gray's final monologue, in which he describes the accident which eventually led to his death. Most of the book, and I suspect, the reason for its publication, consists of recollections of Gray by those who knew him - how he affected them as a friend, colleague, or performer. The most affecting was the one by his step-daughter, who was the only contributor who actually lived with him in his final days. Her admission that maybe everyone was better off without him is born of the ignorance and bluntness of the young, who have not yet learned to dissemble in order to spare the feelings of others. Out of essay after essay celebrating Gray's "honesty," hers was itself the most honest. It must have been quite a different matter to live with him, rather than simply visit, or for those at a sufficiently great distance, to have the luxury of simply recalling how he was before the accident.
We subsequently learned that Gray had attempted suicide several times already. The night he leapt from the ferry was so cold that the deck had been roped off. He must have stepped over the rope and climbed off the railing - unfortunately, not an accident, and not an unanticipated one. In some sense, his family must have agreed to let him go, as difficult as this is to accept.
Gray's passing, and the events and emotions surrounding it, gave me the idea for a play or story. A great, accomplished, famous, and widely beloved man is suicidally depressed. His family bears the brunt of his care, and are exhausted. They come up with the idea of appealing for help from the legions of his fan base. The idea is, if after someone's death, people will say "if only I could have done something," they now will have the chance to "do something" while he is alive.
At first, the response is overwhelming. Enormous numbers of people volunteer to help. As the great man is shuttled from one to another, however, the volunteers turn out to be grossly self-serving, incompetent, or well-meaning but ill-equipped to deal with his needs and demands. In the end, the family must once again take over, with the inevitable conclusion.
Gray's death was not merely our loss of his wit, his observations, his unique presence in our lives. It was the demonstration of our own inability to prevent it, and our own limitations in the face of life's unbearable sorrow.
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