48 pages • 1 hour read
Annie LyonsThe Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Annie Lyons
Content Warning: This section contains discussions of suicide.
Annie Lyons, a resident of Southeast London, began her career in bookselling and transitioned to publishing before turning to a writing career. She has written seven novels and a novella and teaches creative writing. In an “About the Book” section included in the American paperback version, Lyons shares that in middle age she developed an “obsession” with death and decided to write a book that focused on the topic. When her own mother died, Lyons realized that her family had never discussed death. Lyons found writing The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett “a strange kind of therapy” and encourages her readers to have these important conversations about death with loved ones before it is too late (5).
The section also notes another personal connection: Lyons modeled Eudora on the wartime grit and stoicism of her parents’ generation. A later novel, The Air Raid Book Club (2023), revisits Lyons’s interest in World War II–era determination and philosophies of life, again paying homage to that generation. That novel also includes an Intergenerational Friendship in which an adult and child (a 15-year-old) learn from each other.
Philosophical Context: Existential Themes
Existentialism, which first emerged in concrete form in the 19th century, is a diverse philosophical school concerned with the “problem” of human existence—in particular, existence’s meaning in a world that often seems meaningless. Existentialist thought typically emphasizes the role the individual plays in creating meaning—e.g., through various relationships. Indeed, many existentialist thinkers stress the tension between humans’ understanding of themselves as free agents with numerous possibilities open to them and their simultaneous awareness that external forces limit those possibilities. Mortality is perhaps the most notable of those forces, so much existential thought concerns how to understand human purpose in the face of inevitable death. Suicide, as an act that involves both death and (to the existentialist) free choice, is a closely related concern. Indeed, many existentialists would argue that death is the best option when human life ceases to have meaning.
This is Eudora’s position at the beginning of the novel. Given her age and past experiences—i.e., the many broken relationships that have defined her life—she believes that her life is without meaning and decides to pursue assisted suicide as a result. The clinic, however, does not simply accept that Eudora’s view of her situation is correct; its staff is principally concerned with mitigating suffering, and while Eudora’s loneliness and depression are forms of suffering, they are not necessarily intractable ones. In fact, Lyons demonstrates through her novel that human connection, kindness, and friendship can help an individual rediscover the meaning in life and find a purpose to continue despite hardships. Eudora’s life proves to have enormous value—not just to Rose, Stanley, and the rest of her newfound friends, but also to Beatrice and Stella, even if she ultimately was unable to save them from themselves. This is why the assisted suicide clinic determines that Eudora is eligible to end her life just at the point where she has recreated a life worth living; her actions prove to them that she is making a free and considered choice. It is also why the novel ends with Eudora “choosing” death in lieu of pursuing aggressive medical treatment: The life she has created renders that choice more meaningful.
