POST 3: BREATHING LESSONS

Today i read 1-48 Part 1 Ch. 1

Breathing Lessons is the story of Maggie and Ira Moran and the struggle for extraordinary moments in their quite commonplace marriage. The story takes place in one day, begins early on a Saturday morning as Maggie and Ira are preparing to travel from their home in Baltimore to a small town in Pennsylvania to attend the funeral of the husband of Serena, Maggie's best friend from high school. They had just heard from Serena the night before that Max had died and didn't have as much time to prepare for the trip as they normally would. The alarm has gone off too late, and the couple is frantically preparing to leave. Maggie is not as unnerved by this as Ira.

I READ 49-78 Part 1 Chp. 2

Maggie's dearest high-school friend, Serena is now a widow. Her husband Max just passed away. When the Morans arrive, several old classmates greet them. What is supposed to be a memorial service actually resembles a reunion. A series of events stir up old feelings and recollections for Maggie, and she examines her life and the choices she made.They reach the church where the funeral is being held and realize that they are the first to arrive. This pleases Ira, who likes to be punctual. Serena, who had always been a bit eccentric, arrives looking like a Spanish matron in a red dress and long black shawl. Her unusual appearance is shadowed only by her request that Maggie and Ira sing just like they did at Serena and Max's wedding. Maggie doesn't think it's appropriate, but other friends are coming who will sing as well. Serena has decided that this is to be a memorial service, not a funeral; its purpose is to comfort her, and that's what she wants. As the service finally begins, not all of those who were asked to sing do so. Serena makes mental notes.


I READ 79-126 PART 1 CH. 3

Afterwards, everyone walks to Serena's house for drinks, lunch and a showing of Serena and Max's wedding movie. As Maggie looks around the room, sees all the old friends gathered, she thinks that the scene could almost have come straight from high school. She lets her mind wander even further to the time she and Ira fell in love. He had been a few years ahead of her in school, and he never had a social life because of family commitments to his ailing father and two sisters.

An embarrassing, humorous, abrupt exit from the funeral leaves Ira and Maggie with half day's worth of time to spend. Ira wants to go back to his frame shop, Maggie decides she wants to visit her son Jesse's former wife and his only child. Maggie has it in her head that she can rekindle the love the couple had when they were young.

I READ PART 2 129-181

Ira has reached the 50-year point in his life, and he spends a lot of time reflecting on what has passed and what may come, but for the most part he notices how people seem to waste their lives on dumb or impossible dreams. Not that he is excused from coing it. His plans of medical school were forgotten early and he never got past working in his father's framing shop. Ira doesn't take any particular pleasure in his children, either. Jesse, who can't sing a note, refuses to believe that he can't be a rock star even though it has cost him his marriage and his child. Daisy has distanced herself emotionally, and soon will increase that distance with her departure for an Ivy League college. Ira is not happy at all with how his life has turned out.

I READ PART 3 CH. 1 186-223

As the car speeds along the Pennsylvania highway, Maggie remembers the time after Fiona left their home with Leroy. Maggie would try to disguise herself and sit in her parked car in the hopes of catching a glimpse of her granddaughter. It is hard for her to make the leap from the days when Leroy was a newborn and Maggie would comfort her in the night to today, when she wouldn't even recognize the child. For Maggie, losing Fiona and Leroy is just another trauma in a series of losses, and she wonders if this is what aging is really all about losing things that you made the mistake of thinking were yours to begin with.

I READ PART 3 CH. 2 224-291

Ira's reaction to the news that Fiona and Leroy are coming back with them is cruel. He can never understand how Maggie accomplishes these things one minute he's tossing a Frisbee, and the next, the plans for his day have been completely altered. She doesn't understand why Ira is always so negative by Jesse, but she supposes that this invitation to Fiona just opens all of those feelings for him. Jesse was different from Ira from the moment he was born. He had joy and a spirit in him that Ira could never recognize or understand. Maggie wonders if Jesse ever connected with her, either. She was the boring, conventional type, and Jesse could never abide by convention.