Cold (Book Review: The Cool Part Of His Pillow, Rodney Ross)

I was recently touched by death, and I am still in some part of the grieving process. I had gotten Rodney Ross' "The Cool Part Of His Pillow" a while back, but never read it until I randomly started it a week ago. I am glad I did - reading it has helped me deal. Maybe subconsciously I never read it before because it was waiting for a time for me to fully appreciate it.  It wasn't the easiest read, for sure. It's dark and depressing (with thankful hits of black humor) and it is written a bit excessively, but it also touching, meaningful, and it is staying with me. It is one of those novels wherein each sentence is layered, and I am sure I have missed some anecdote, or hidden joke somewhere that I should probably re-read it to get another layer. It is a story of loss, and how one man deals with it. The novel spans a year in life, how one lives and overcomes, and deals with change. I always bemoan the loss of internal novels I used to read when I was younger, and this is very similar to those. I just wish it was edited a little better - it feels overly long and could have been a little tighter. But still, it's fantastic on its own.

BC-11