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All of Us Together in the End
All of Us Together in the End | Matthew Vollmer
1 post | 1 read | 1 to read
All Of Us Together In The End is a lyrical examination of transformation after loss, by a writer the New York Times calls "irresistible" and "utterly convincing."Vollmer's family memoir shimmers with wonder and enchantment and begins with the death of his mother from early-onset Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Soon after, flashing lights and floating orbs appear in the woods surrounding his family's home in rural North Carolina, where his widowed father lives. Formative memories of having been raised in the Seventh-day Adventist church resurge in Vollmer's mind, hastening self-reexamination and reckoning.He corresponds with a retired geology professor about "ghost lights," which supposedly occur more in North Carolina than any other American state. He scrolls TikTok. He contacts an eccentric shaman who lives in Spain to have transcendental psychotherapy administered over Zoom. And then Jolene emerges, a woman endeared for decades to Vollmer's father, holding secrets to their family's past.Amidst the turmoil and loneliness of the pandemic, All of Us Together in the End is a poignant and often humorous investigation into belief set in a time where it seems people will believe anything. It is an elegiac affirmation of the awesome, strange, otherworldly ways our loved ones remain alive to us, even when they are out of reach.
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Suet624
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Mehso-so

What was it that made me pull this off the library shelf? Learning about Seventh Day Adventists? Unexplainable lights flashing in the deep forest possibly being a message from his mother who had recently died? An exploration of memories of his mother & the ensuing grief of her passing? Or was it something about his father marrying so soon after his wife had died and what that meant to the family? Who knows. But I really struggled to finish this.

BarbaraBB It sounded fascinating until your last sentence! 7mo
Suet624 @BarbaraBB I know. I was disappointed. It sounded right up my alley. 7mo
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