Review: Last Letters to Loved Ones by Rose Rouse

Last Letters to Loved Ones, Rose Rouse

Release date: 5th May 2008

Publisher: Metro Books

Genre: Tearjerker

Pages: 240

To lose someone close to you is a terrible tragedy and those who are left behind often wish they could have known more about the thoughts and feelings of the person they lost prior to their death. For those involved in conflicts, who have a terminal illness, or who are contemplating suicide, a letter to their loved one who remains is a way of communicating their emotion and leaves behind a potent, tangible reminder; it is a gift to ease emotional suffering. 

Twenty-two-year-old gunner Lee Thornton was shot on patrol in Basra in 2006. Before he died, he wrote a touching letter to his fiancée, Helen, saying "You have shown me what love is and what it feels like to be loved".

Captain E. F. Lubbock was a pilot in World War I. He wrote his last letter to his mother in November 1915, with strict instructions for it to be sent only in the event of his death. Sadly, it had to be posted. He begs his mother to "try not to let it be too great a blow to you, try and conquer your own sorrow and to live cheerfully".

This deeply moving yet uplifting book is an amazing insight into the complexity of human emotions.

I knew this book would be a tearjerker, yet I still bought it.Tears started flowing after only a few pages. I reckon if you play sad music, you'd be crying after the first page.

This book is full of letters from people to their families and friends before they died, spanning from the early 100s to 2007. There are letters from those who were in Iraq and Afghanistan, WWs I and II, the terminally ill, those who were in prison and some who didn't know they were going to die. I thought that the letters from Iraq and Afghanistan were the saddest and made me cry heaps.

I know-- why would I buy a book that'd just make me cry? Sometimes, you need a good cry. :)

What I didn't like was how before each letter, after a brief summary of who the writer was and what they did, there was a little paragraph that analysed what they'd said and described human emotions, the complexity of them and stuff like that. Please. I do enough analysing in English. I'd rather not read an analysis of a last letter-- which could be totally wrong. The author couldn't exactly ask, huh?

My verdict: It will make you cry, but in a good way. Try going to this blog and not crying at some of the vids, yeah?