Coda
£7.25
A moving finale to this fine series - This final volume, Coda, in Simon Gray s diaries will be warmly welcomed by anyone who has followed Gray s progress from The Smoking Diaries to The Last Cigarette, in which he documented his life in characteristic candid and confessional style. The subtheme in all the books is Gray s battle with smoking, and latterly the onset of lung-cancer. However, Gray s diaries are not all about smoking - far from it. Gray writes about many topics including his life as a playwright, his holidays in Greece, and his close friendship with Harold Pinter (sadly also deceased late last year). But the battle with smoking is an underlying theme throughout and is a melancholic warning to anyone who feels that smoking is something to do with personal freedom. In Coda, the last volume in this quartet we read of Gray s unwanted prognosis. He really didn t want the doctor (nicknamed The Chipmunk of Doom) to give him the prognosis but when he asked how long . . ? ( actually meaning, before I get a definite diagnosis) was interpreted by the doctor as being how long have I got? I have always thought that I would like to know how long I have before dying of a terminal illness so that I could plan my last year and make sure I made the most of it, but Gray writes that a doctor who tells you that you have a year to live has taken the year away from you. Ignorance is bliss apparently.The rest of the book describes in diary form how Gray deals with his illness and the many hospital visits he has to endure. The book would be unbearably sad but Gray and his wife Victoria go on holiday to Crete and despite Gray s obvious physical limitations they manage to have a reasonable time despite the death sentence hanging over them. One of his chapters, Reading Matters describes the large number of books he took on holiday with him. While in Crete he discovered Stefan Zweig and read Beware of Pity which has the same effect on him as it does on most people - how did I come to miss this book for so long? Later on, when back home he researched Zweig and reads everything by him he can lay his hands on. Simon Gray and his wife are keen swimmers and this seems to be one activity which is relatively unhindered by his deteriorating physical condition. One afternoon in Crete he goes for a walk on his own, going much too far until he began to feel hot, too hot, and a bit dizzy. It being too far to get back to his wife he decided to have a swim, which helped for a while but soon he was floundering in the sea. Would it be better to:. . . drift on, until finally drifting underwater without noticing a change, simply a slipping out of two elements into one, seeping into the sea, scarcely a death really, and so much better than rotting in bed . . . But the thought of leaving Victoria reading in the café alone in Crete, having to arrange to take my body back if it washed ashore became too much for him and he managed to haul himself ashore and plod back to the café, not telling Victoria how close he was to death. With this book, we of course know the end right from the beginning, and I wondered what the closing chapter would be like. However, the diaries end as one might expect, in an unfinished way and we have to rely on the accounts of Gray s friends to read about what happened next. While the books has an pervasive air of sadness to it, it is far from being a gloomy read. I enjoyed reading all four volumes and this last one, Coda, was in a sense, a fulfilment of the others, leaving memories of someone who through the intimacy of his writing almost feels like a close friend.
Witty and moving - Simon Gray wrote wonderfully. His digressions give one the impression that one is listening in to his unfiltered interior monologue. He is wise and witty and does not spare the doctors who dealt with him so insensitively. He castigates the consultant who told him he had a year to live for taking that year away from him. His autobiographical writings are a wonderful legacy.
Heart-rending and bittersweet - I enjoyed this book, even though the subject matter is dark and the overall tone of the book is rather melancholy. He writes extremely well, the only mild irritant is his tendency to waffle on and on, making a sentence extremely long and sometimes a little boring and you begin to wonder when he will finally place a full stop.A little like that!On the whole though, highly recommended and can be read as a stand alone book, although it is beneficial to have read The Smoking Diaries.