Iris by Nancy Springer is a heart warming account of a mother and how she deals with the oddities of life after her daughter’s and husband’s death. Separation takes a while getting used to. But solitude doesn’t seem to bother her as much. She finds comfort and solace in the everyday tidbits that we normally turn a blind eye to. Collecting bottle caps, clothespins, strings of beads, whistles, toys that someone outgrew, jacks – becomes her all time leisure activity. I feel, it sort of becomes her refuge. The author makes this short, 8-paged story more humorous with witty remarks as spoken by the mother.
There isn’t much I could write about this book without spilling it all. Its far from the likes of anything I’ve read and yet I was curious to know more. It was just so… sweet! Something we can learn from this is that, there’s no such thing as “worthless”. Every thing, whether small or big in monetary terms, possesses some value in the eyes of the beholder. Its all based on perception. So view things as you may, but ain’t nobody got the right to say that discarded things are rubbish. Sometimes they may not mean much, but sometimes it becomes a lifeline to others.
Rating – 3 stars on 5.
Mia
The Life Stories 