Small Rain by Garth Greenwell
I bought Small Rain by Garth Greenwell with my Christmas money. It was one of a list of books I’d got on my phone that I wanted to read. I must have read a good review of it somewhere for it to be on my list, but I don’t remember where or when.
Published in the UK in 2024, Small Rain is the story of a poet stuck in hospital. He (and it’s a while before we even have confirmation that it’s a he), suffers excruciating pain one day. He doen’t go to hospital, as these are Covid times, and he fears getting the virus and also causing trouble for an already overstretched system.
He eventually goes to the ER (this is set in America) five days after the pain starts, by which time it has started to subside. He discovers the pain had a very serious cause and he is lucky to still be alive. He is transferred to the ICU,
The whole book is narrated by the poet. It feels like the most authentic description of hospital and pain I’ve ever read. He describes his care and the frustrations of not knowing when and if he will get better, what medication he is on, when he will get out of the hospital etc.
We never find out the poet’s name, nor the names of the two people closest to him – his partner L and his sister G.
Small Rain is a slow novel, definitely not a page turner. I enjoyed reading the bits about the hospital and some of the poet’s backstory, which he thinks about during the long and lonely hours. But on the whole, I found Small Rain to be too challenging. It wasn’t particularly sad or disturbing. To be honest, I just found it a bit boring a lot of the time.
There is one long section where he reflects on a poem about a sparrow. It was like an academic essay about the poem. I must admit, I was close to just giving up and skipping that section, which I never do. I found it really boring and it didn’t bring anything to the story.
Small Rain really wasn’t for me, but it has some very good reviews, so obviously a lot of people like it. If it sounds like your cup of tea, you might enjoy it more than I did.
Other books I bought with my Christmas money are Munichs and Homegoing.
It’s always disappointing to me when everyone raves about a book, then I start it and find it boring. But that happens sometimes! There’s no shortage of books to go around, so there’s something for everyone. I like the premise of this book, but I would probably want the action to move along a little quicker too.
Thank you. I do think there’s not many people who would actually enjoy this book! I understand why it was so slow and I thought the descriptions of hospital and pain were very well down, but it was just too slow.