Imperfect Endings, Zoe FitzGerald Carter
Imperfect Endings, Zoe FitzGerald Carter
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Imperfect Endings
A Daughter's Tale of Life and Death

Author: Zoe FitzGerald Carter

Narrator: Karen White

Unabridged: 8 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/08/2010

Synopsis

After twenty years of living with terminal illness, Zoe FitzGerald Carter's mother decided to end her life—and asked her three daughters for their assistance. For months, the decision dragged on as her mother changed her methods and schedule, and the negotiations stirred up old memories, sibling rivalries, and questions about family loyalty. Eventually, there was compromise and courage, and Zoe's mother had her happy—if imperfect—ending.

Zoe and her sisters struggled to accept the imminent death of their mother, circling around the same questions: Who will help her? Will they go to jail? Can they bear to let her die alone? With a doctor prescribing lethal doses of sleep medication, a visit from a member of the Hemlock Society's "Final Exit Network," and the temptations of overdosing on morphine, the issues and people in Imperfect Endings are at the center of the debate on assisted suicide.

With echoes of bestselling grief memoirs like Elegy for Iris and The Year of Magical Thinking, Carter's memoir is the unforgettable story of a family learning to love and to let go.

About Zoe FitzGerald Carter

Zoe FitzGerald Carter is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and has written for numerous publications, including New York magazine, the New York Observer, Premiere, and various national magazines. Her first memoir, Imperfect Endings, won first place in the 2008 Pacific Northwest Writer's Association's literary contest and was a finalist at the San Francisco Writer's Conference. Zoe lives in Northern California with her husband and two daughters.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Irene

Disclaimer: I went to this book because my mother also engineered her own death. Unlike Carter's mother, mine did not suffer from illness or disability. For her, a chosen or engineered death was an act of free choice or, in her words, self-determination. I found this book brave, insightful and very......more

Goodreads review by Shelby

I struggled with this book. Not because the writing was bad or the story was boring. The complete opposite actually. I thought Zoe FitzGerald Carter told her story with elegance and beauty. I struggled because I don't know how I would react. It caused me to think and question my own thoughts and fee......more

Goodreads review by Mary

This is such a heartfelt and beautifully written story about the author and her mother's determination to end her life on her terms. I couldn't imagine that anyone could put into words the grief and anguish that must have occurred when Carter's mother announced she was determined to no longer live w......more

Goodreads review by Susan

I loved the book. Zoe is a wonderful writer. The story is complicated, sad, revealing and happy, all I’m one. Recommend it fully.......more

Goodreads review by Brian

This extremely hard memoir to read is about a woman who has Parkinson's and she wants to end her life. So she calls her kids in, her three daughters and wants to die in front of her. This book deals with the painful topic of death, and tells the story of a woman who wants to die on her own terms. IT......more

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