Live Fast by Brigitte Giraud

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live,” said one of my favorite authors, Joan Didion. It is a quote that so often is associated with not only Didion but also grief and loss. I thought about this quote as I was listening to Brigitte Giraud’s beautifully crafted novel “Live Fast.” Now this novel is not a pure work of fiction, rather is it based on an event that happened to Brigitte in 1999 in France. Her partner Claude crashed in a motorcycle accident on his way to pick up their son from school. He was just 41 years old, and the motorcycle did not belong to him. It was left in their garage by Brigitte’s brother for safe keeping as he went on vacation. In “Live Fast,” Giraud combs over the series of events that lead to the unlikely accident. Like a detective examining a crime, she goes over Claude’s workday as a music librarian, from the moment she found out he died, and through the type of Honda Fireblade motorcycle and its history of accidents. Heart-breaking, analytical, poignant and precise, the novel is clearly a therapeutic way for Giraud to work on her own grief, still fresh some 26 years later. What I loved most about this book was how matter-of-fact it was. There is no sugar coating the details of Claude’s life. There is only a retelling of the details of his accident. People come and go, and some die tragically. Claude’s body died, however, within the pages of Giraud’s book he will never be forgotten. His story, his life, and her love for him live on every time someone reads her book. To buy this book on Amazon click here.