Exit Lines

Exit Lines has ratings and 36 reviews. cloudyskye said: Not too bad, with some surprising twists. Dalziel was a little too much in the background per.
Table of contents

This novel is set in a rather exclusive retirement home very specifically not a nursing home in a non-specified small town in Canada. The brand shiny new Idyll Inn opens its doors and welcomes its new residents followed by their rag tag assortment of family members and moving teams. She demands a room with a view and a balcony and i This novel is set in a rather exclusive retirement home very specifically not a nursing home in a non-specified small town in Canada.

She demands a room with a view and a balcony and installs her own mini fridge for all the little necessities of life, namely a good bottle of wine or two. Greta passes her time by knitted voraciously in bright cheerful clashing colours and trying her hardest to stop her mind from slipping back into her native tongue as she slowly loses the English she learned so many years ago.

Crotchety George, one of very few males to have made it to such a ripe old age, he is a victim of a debilitating stroke that has left him wheel chair bound, stolen his entire left side, fuddled his brain and his tongue and most viciously left him unable to live alone, fearing the unexpected and humiliating events that can befall a man in the middle of the night in his own home.

Then, the final member of our protagonist gang, is Ruth, younger than the rest but more wizened by far, her one time gymnasts body is bent and contorted by osteoporosis, she appears almost bent double and relies upon a stroller to get around the common areas of the Idyll Inn ever so slowly. Also widowed and childless Ruth has no family and has come to this place with one very specific goal, to recruit some friends — accomplices really to aide her in the swift and timely ending of her own life.

The novel follows the four as they meet in the Idyll Inn some for the first time, some who knew each other from their previous existences in this small town. Ruth and Greta share a common if opposite history in the war that drove Greta from her homeland and cost Ruth many of her ancestors.

Get A Copy

They are getting along tolerably and each coping with their own burdens until Ruth decides the time has come and drops on them all the bombshell of a favour she has to ask of them. At this point the novel becomes something else entirely as they each wrestle with the idea of euthanasia, the ideas of sin, god, hell, morality, nobility, heroism, loneliness and hope, and - more pressingly the logistics of actually doing the deed.

A very well written and darkly funny novel it is an easy read on the face of it but touches on some dark and some deep issues, not the least of which being out treatment of the aged in our society and our families and our inability to see them as people endowed with a wealth of history and experience rather than irrelevant burdens to be shut away in tidy communities and ignored. Feb 23, Theja rated it really liked it. A subject that may have put me off kept me entranced.

The characters were well portrayed and the story drifted smoothly from chapter to chapter. Held my attention throughout. The end was an anticlimax.

Supreme Court’s endorsement to the validity of the living will was much needed

Yet, one of the best books I have read lately. Nov 07, Joannie rated it really liked it. A dark comic novel of four friends in a retirement home, pondering topics of life, death, family, children, sex A surprise twist when the age-old euthanasia debate comes up and the toughest form test of friendship is put to the test. It starts with an arc that shades upwards for a while, and then it goes along with bumpy patches but more or less nicely flat and pastel for quite a distance, until it begins heading downward.

Exit Lines (Dalziel & Pascoe, #8) by Reginald Hill

It declines and turns grey. As it seems to me too many lives do. AS we can see here every day, with one person or another going downhill. I'd give this enjoyable read a 3. Life in a newly opened retirement home brings 4 people together into a close-knit friendship. The story features each one of the fourtheir childhood, marriages, careers all the external trappings and accomplishments of a full life but then shifts deeper into their internal dialogue about their relationships with their adult children, their views about their failing bodies, their beliefs and ethics, the good and the bad in the world, t I'd give this enjoyable read a 3.

The story features each one of the fourtheir childhood, marriages, careers all the external trappings and accomplishments of a full life but then shifts deeper into their internal dialogue about their relationships with their adult children, their views about their failing bodies, their beliefs and ethics, the good and the bad in the world, the perspectives of the young and old about themselves and about the other end of the age spectrum.

Even though it covers past experiences they were less proud of, it didn't really seem like it was as regret but just more of a looking back on one's life story "as is".


  • Exit Lines: The Brief History of Behind Closed Doors | Behind Closed Doors.
  • Coopers Deale.
  • Little Bird - Pajarito (My Second Language Series);
  • .

Then to add to this, one of them decides to set and orchestrate her own death Jan 26, Julia rated it liked it Shelves: The idea behind the book is great, some of the writing was very compelling, but unfortunately the characters tended to be stereotypes rather than real people. The struggling immigrant woman, the social worker who never had children and has been crippled by the past both her's and her family history the socialite with the sharp tongue Also I found the ending unsatisfying, not because "n The idea behind the book is great, some of the writing was very compelling, but unfortunately the characters tended to be stereotypes rather than real people.

Also I found the ending unsatisfying, not because "no one died" but I didn't find any true resolution. Although, maybe that is the point. There were details; phrases that I found quite wonderful, but overall it did not achieve the initial promise. Dec 04, Carolyn James rated it it was ok Shelves: This book made literally zero impact on my life and will soon be forgotten. Exit Lines is an anticlimactic tale of four individuals in a nursing style home who reminisce on their younger years while trying to convince Ruth, the most healthiest one, not to kill herself.

Ruth remains firm on the decision that the world sucks and begs her new friends to help her end her life. This is probably one of my shortest reviews I've written because I was just so, incredibly bored by it all. Warning, there is no big, final finish to this book. Life, aging, friendship, hope Lots of my peers are dealing with parent care, faced with their elders' health issues, relocation into care homes so this was interesting from the point of view of the elderly. They have had full lives, jobs, families, affairs and have to face the limits and sometimes humiliations imposed upon them by health, circumstance and caregivers.

Doesn't matter how close we are to facing our mortality, until the end we Life, aging, friendship, hope Doesn't matter how close we are to facing our mortality, until the end we are part of humanity. Sep 17, Suze rated it it was amazing Shelves: We see characters who are fleshed out, passionate people behind the old-age camouflage of invisibility.

I laughed and commiserated as Barfoot explored the loss of dignity and autonomy in old age, and gained insight into what makes life worth living. A jewel of a book. Sep 01, Janet Carkner rated it it was amazing. I loved this book and was surprised to see that others didn't! Maybe it is my age 58 and the fact that my mother has been in a couple of retirement homes for respite, and an elderly aunt and uncle live in one.

I thought the book was very funny and a bit sad, and I had to stop now and then to think about what I had just read, and consider my own perspectives of aging and my and my mother's future. May 10, Rosemary rated it liked it. This took place in a new retirement home. One doesn't want to continue beyond a certain point in her life. The book is concerned with friendships, relationships with adult children, aging. It is a tad too close to the bone for me personally, but it is interesting.

Jan 10, Barry rated it really liked it Shelves: Examines death, suicide, sex, old age, marriage with humour and compassion. Not much of a story but interesting characters and sometimes wonderful use of language. What a great books! Written in the usual Barfoot style, this book made me laugh, and also made me realize a lot about the elderly.

This is a book that has opened my eyes and will change my way of thinking and approach to life. May 16, Allison rated it really liked it Shelves: She really doesn't sugarcoat the realities of aging. A nice, unassuming, steals-up-on you story.

Debra Fine // Exit Lines

Also one of those books that makes me wonder if people I know are cheating on their spouses since, if literature is to be believed, it's happening a lot more than I realize. Aug 01, Anni rated it liked it. I have put this book on hold as I am finding it too depressing. I may come back to it later. Sep 30, Victoria Shepherd rated it really liked it. An unflinching look at the harsh realities of old age - above all, the human spirit prevails.

Mar 17, Serena rated it really liked it. Aug 13, Denise Macmartin rated it it was ok. A celebration of life in all it's different guises. Nov 05, Marilyn rated it liked it. Black comedy about what happens when some of the "clients" of an upscale seniors' residence decide to take things into their own hands. Started well but dragged a bit towards the end. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Her novels include Luck in , nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, as well as Abra, which won the Books in Canada first novels award, Dancing in the Dark, which became an award-winning Canadian entry in the Cannes and Toronto Joan Barfoot is an award-winning novelist whose work has been compared internationally with that of Anne Tyler, Carol Shields, Margaret Drabble and Margaret Atwood.

In she was given the Marian Engel Award. Also a journalist during much of her career, she lives in London, Ontario, Canada. Books by Joan Barfoot.


  • Manage Stress at Home: Sleep Like a Baby (The 10-Minute Guide to Managing Stress).
  • Exit lines;
  • Applications of Antisense Therapies to Restenosis (Perspectives in Antisense Science).
  • See a Problem?.

Trivia About Exit Lines. No trivia or quizzes yet. Quotes from Exit Lines. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Doctors do take pride in their profession and firmly believe that hospitals can save lives and restore or improve the state of health in many seriously ill patients.


  • Exit lines | Northaunt.
  • Writing our own exit lines.
  • Turkey’s Accession to the European Union: The Politics of Exclusion? (Routledge Research in EU Law).
  • Exit Lines by Joan Barfoot.
  • Angel of Almador: The Prisoner of the Empire.
  • Cherry Summer: His first time gay sex (Dirtyhunk Gay Erotica)!
  • Anonymity Jones;

However, they have also often seen the sad spectacle of terminally ill and comatose patients being tethered to tubes and run by machines in a state that offends human dignity. Little wonder, then, that doctors cannot visualise their own final passing as captives to the technological tyranny of intensive but insensitive care. My mother was an obstetrician of repute who helped to bring many a new life into the world. As she approached death at 90, she was very clear she wanted her passing to be at home.

I, and a large extended family of many doctors, honoured her wishes even as we provided end of life nursing care with all the love that we wanted her to feel and all the sadness we wished to hide. She died in peace. However, that choice is mostly denied to persons who die in a hospital. There, the decisions on treatment are taken by doctors who have been trained never to give up and are psychologically conditioned to see every death as a professional defeat. Doctors in hospitals feel duty bound to try every device and drug available to them to prolong life as much as possible.

Exit Lines

Even if it violates the body and damages the dignity of the dying patient for whom there is no hope of revival. Under those circumstances, the close family too feels helpless. Can they tell the doctors to give up those futile efforts, without experiencing guilt that they are hastening the death of a person they cannot bear to lose?

So the distressing saga of medical assault continues, with a misplaced sense of duty that defies sensibility and defiles human dignity. Such a will must, however, have legal sanction to liberate both the doctors and the family members from the obligation to continue intrusive terminal care. The Supreme Court of India has now provided that much needed legal endorsement to the validity of a living will, in an erudite, eloquent and impassioned judgement.

The court was careful to distinguish it from suicide, physician assisted suicide or euthanasia. Safeguards against misuse are to be provided, through medical boards which will examine the relevance of the living will in the context of the clinical profile and prognosis.