Lawnmower Lady Acclaimed as ‘Heartwarming and Heartbreaking’
Kirkus Reviews adored The Lawnmower Lady, calling it “an irreverent, funny, heartwarming, and heartbreaking novel.” Congratulations to author Edith Forbes! Preorder this “darkly comic novel” now about life and death in a small New England town.
Here’s the review:
Life, death, religion, and the best and worst of humanity clash in Forbes’ darkly comic novel.
In November 1999, immediately after feeding her pigs, self-professed “grouch” Fay Kirkwood is graciously “spared one last unnecessary winter” and a disastrous new millennium when she drops dead, due to a sudden stroke. Unfortunately for Fay, her soul doesn’t slip away quietly and peacefully into a serene afterlife; instead, her consciousness lingers, “aware but useless for all eternity,” watching life go on through the eyes of others. This means that Fay has a front-row seat when her niece Dryden finds her body and makes a decision that upends the lives of friends, family members, and strangers alike. Ever the realist, and with a twisted sense of wit, Fay used to joke that when she died, she wanted to be fed to wildlife rather than be filled with toxins and take up any more space in the world. Dryden grants her wish, opting to feed Fay’s body to coyotes, rather than notify the police. When word gets out of this alternative burial, Fay’s small New England town erupts in curiosity and rumors of conspiracy: Did Dryden get rid of Fay so that she could get her inheritance? Did Dryden dispose of her aunt in exchange for money and land? Is there something more sinister to these private and peculiar women than the townspeople originally thought? Forbes has crafted an insightful, witty, and grimly humorous tale of life, death, and the great beyond. The narrative is well plotted and evenly paced, and the characters, from rigidly religious folk to hopeless romantics and jilted lovers, are thoughtfully complex, no matter how often or how rarely they grace the pages. Irreverent Fay is an oddly lovable protagonist, thanks to her delightful bravado and ceaseless cynicism; through her skeptical eyes, readers see a vision of humanity in all its brutality and beauty.
An irreverent, funny, heartwarming, and heartbreaking novel.
Read the review online.