All Rileyed Up

More Than It Hurts You is about the Goldin family, Josh, Dori, and their infant, Zack. Zack has been brought to the hospital a couple times for ailments from unknown causes. Dr. Darlene Stokes determines that the mother is hurting the child to gain attention, and alerts child protective services. Drama ensues.

Here is the opening line:
“Fifteen minutes before happiness left him, Josh Goldin led his summer intern by the elbow to share in the hallelujah of a Friday afternoon.”

Chills, much?

Strauss’ line is destined to outlast many things that take up space in my memory. It stayed with me through the course of this riveting novel because I kept wondering, why did the author begin it fifteen minutes before the start of the *real* story?

Was it pointless exposition on office politics that should have been cut in the editing process or was it an opportunity to draw a parallel between office politics and life politics. I’ve known many a person to utter the words, ‘I can’t stand office politics.’ But perhaps office politics are no different than the politics of life, of living, or making a living, of watching lives, and of interacting with them. So many people think of office politics as some foreign world where people interact with one another on a superficial level and that none of them truly know one another. They appear to be friends, they even know certain details about their lives, yet in the opening chapter, Josh’s office comrades witness the moment of happiness leaving him, and they are concerned for, oh, say, a minute? And truly, more uncomfortable than concerned, wanting to immediately give him space, not be seen still enjoying their Friday afternoon. I don’t think this was not to say that work is a cold, cruel place, but to say, people are only truly hurt by their own individual circumstances, hence the title More Than It Hurts You.

I think it was Dale Carnegie who said people care more about their hangnail than your life-threatening cancer. Is Darin Strauss suggesting any less? If you are hurt by something, can no one else feel your pain? Do you think anyone truly understands your pain? And furthermore, do you care if they do? Particularly, do you even care about their pain if you are trying to relieve yours? And where does blame come in? And why, in this country, does blame share a direct link with race and religion? She’s black! They’re Jewish! Let’s immediately jump to those easy-to-label words because we’re desperate to relieve our own pain.

Strauss has turned out a beautiful novel about a family and a doctor’s pains, and their attempts to live through them, only to have fingers pointed and the looming words of race and religion, the general slap in the face that America has unfortunately delivered in the past.

Interesting read. Thanks, Darin, for the food for thought.

Things to know:

Buy the book here.

Go to Darin Strauss’ website here.

Strauss is blogging about his book tour on Newsweek.com. This latest is an amusing post because, well, any story that involves Debbie Reynolds and leftover Chinese is a story indeed.

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