On her rich, engaging site, Pickle Me This, author and reviewer Kerry Clare offers an enticing glimpse into The Last Goldfish: A True Tale of Friendship—pairing it with discussion of another story of friendship and loss, Marg Heidebrecht’s In the Shade: Friendship, Loss and the Bruce Trail.
Veteran journalist and longtime ‘friend’ of grief herself, Barbara Adhiya (a fellow Ryerson journalism alumnus!) has launched Good Grief Stories, a promising new site on which she’s gathering tales of grief and survival, and resources for those experiencing it—even years later. As Adhiya writes, “We will all experience grief. It is a part of the human experience. For many, there is no closure, only a life before, and after.” She recommends The Last Goldfish, among other titles and links.
In early June, more than 80 readers and friends “attended” our virtual launch for The Last Goldfish: A True Tale of Friendship, which is still live! If you missed it, pour yourself a drink and watch anytime. During this lively event, I read a few excerpts from the book and engage in hearty discussions with Molly Peacock, Carmine Starnino, and Monique Holmes on how friendships (especially those forged in youth) can shape and anchor us; on the blessings of old friends and new; and on navigating memory and loss over time.
I’m delighted to announce that The Last Goldfish will feature in the Ottawa International Writers Festival‘s virtual edition this fall. More to come!
And finally, stay tuned for the coming revival of my literary blog, Henrietta & Me: People and Other Wonders Found in Books. (Here is the original entry, describing the blog’s genesis.) In the coming weeks, I’ll be gradually reposting old entries, which got buried when my site was redesigned, and also—more importantly!—launching a new series of Henrietta shorts called The Friendship Files.
What readers are saying about The Last Goldfish
“The Last Goldfish is a gorgeously written coming-of-age tale with a heartbreaking twist. Lahey is a writer of extraordinary gifts, evoking the world of two raucous schoolgirls growing up in 1980s Burlington, Ontario in astonishing, at times laugh-out-loud funny, detail. Anita and her best friend Lou are intensely alive in these pages, squeezing every last drop out of existence, learning the most painful and profound life lessons, together and alone, as cancer cruelly hijacks their youth. Lou couldn’t have asked for a more stalwart, loyal friend than Anita Lahey; we couldn’t ask for a more acutely observant and empathetic writer to takes us along as she explores every nook and cranny of the life and early death of her best friend.”
—Moira Farr
“Anita Lahey writes about friendship and loss with nimbleness and grace. Her memoir brings back to life what illness and death took away.”
—Elizabeth Hay, author of All Things Consoled: a daughter’s memoir
“The Last Goldfish feels true in every sense of the word. Not just that all this really happened. Not just that author Anita Lahey creates two teenage girls with such novelistic skill that you’re instantly pulled into their lives and back to adolescence itself, the exuberance and intensity. But mainly this book is true in the way a carpenter uses the word, for an oak plank that is perfectly and exquisitely honed, and will bear the weight.”
—Joan Thomas, author of Five Wives
“For all who secretly understand that friends are family comes Anita Lahey’s heartwrencher, The Last Goldfish, a memoir of a quirky redhead and a stubborn brunette. As these two girls are becoming young women, illness pushes the valiant redhead onto a harrowing path. Of course the stalwart brunette accompanies her. Warning: you’ll cry. (I certainly did.) One dies. One lives to tell this tale. Journalist-poet Anita Lahey’s sublimely empathic eye and piquant sense of humor, especially in matters of love and death, make The Last Goldfish a gentle, generous, and stunning book. You’ll remember these brave friends.”
—Molly Peacock, author of The Paper Garden and The Analyst
Lovely poem! Favourite lines: “her Cyrano de Bergerac/snout, over her lumpy coronet” and “grasp at a willowy stalk, and pivot…
Thank you, Alice! I loved it too. And it comes to mind often, which is not common, even for books…
I loved this book, Anita, and thoroughly enjoyed reading your thoughts and insights about it. Thank you!
Thank you Maureen! I greatly appreciate your comment. And yes, I too, was thinking about the translation & how well…
Fiona, thank you. It is not lost on me that you have a seahorse poem I love. Maureen Hynes reminded…