Here one Moment, Liane Moriarty, author; Caroline Lee and Geraldine Hakewill, narrators
What would you do with your life if you suddenly knew the date of your death and the cause of your death? Would you try to foil your destiny, make whatever changes you could to try to alter the trajectory of your life, or would you give in to it, in a fatalistic way, assuming you could do nothing to change what was written in the wind? This is the conundrum that faced the passengers that flew to Sydney, Australia, on the same plane as Cherry Lockwood, as she, unbidden, pointed to each passenger and foretold the cause and time of their death.
If you were one of her “victims” on that plane, would you be terrified of the prospect of dying, or would you possibly be empowered by the knowledge that your time was limited, as indeed all of our time is limited, to make positive changes in your life? What would you discover about yourself and your true heart’s desire? Were there things you really wanted to do before you shuffled off this mortal coil that would suddenly inspire you to change your present life, or were you more inclined to curl up into a ball and descend into a state of depression? The passengers on Cherry’s flight had to confront that difficult choice.
Cherry Lockwood became an actuary. In that job she was trained to make decisions based on probability. As we learn about her life, her loves and her lost loves, we grow to actually admire her, even though she is not very likeable in the opening scene as she “attacks” each passenger with the unwanted knowledge of their date with death. It was a captive audience, and Cherry seemed to be in a trance as she told each and every passenger when and how they would die. She also seemed unaware of what she was doing until a flight attendant intervened, calmed her and silenced her into sleep mode. She had no memory of what she had done. She believed that she was neither a psychic or clairvoyant. She was intuitive, she thought. Her job depended on her skills of intuition and judgment. Her mother, however, was known as Madame Mae, a fortuneteller/counselor. She, too, was intuitive, and she knew how to extract information so she could guide her clients to believe her input, and often, solve their problems and improve their lives. Her advice was appreciated. Few passengers appreciated Cherry’s predictions, however. It was too frightening a prospect to handle on a claustrophobic plane with no way out, and there was little desire to know what she was exclaiming.
As time passed, the whole event was forgotten, but then, as some passengers began to die in the same way and on the same date as she had predicted, a number wanted to find her. They wanted to know if she was a true psychic or a crackpot. Was she a madwoman or a clairvoyant, or perhaps, had she simply been hallucinating? Could her predictions be reversed with lifestyle changes? Were Cherry’s pronouncements simply examples of probability vs actuality, possibility vs certainty? If someone thinks something will happen, will it become a self-fulfilling prophecy?
In actuality, did Cherry’s warnings give people the opportunity to outsmart fate or did they determine their fate? She knew nothing about the passengers, so even though her job as an actuary trained her to gauge probabilities, could she accurately predict the time and type of death for these strangers? Were these passengers witnessing a true psychic phenomenon or simply a psychotic break experienced by a grieving passenger. She was traveling with the ashes of the “love of her life”!
As the story follows the lives of the psychic and several of the passengers, the reader observes how that unwanted terminal knowledge altered the way some of them carried on with their lives. Alternately the savior or oppressor, had Cherry’s warnings warded off her prophecy or caused it to become a reality? I loved the character, Cherry. She was so smart and yet so naïve at the same time. She was downright honest and genuine. Her stories about the stinky kangaroos and her description of air pigs made the narrative have just the right amount of wit and made it very easy to read.
Through the device of the predictions, we are exposed to the inner voice of many of the characters. We gain insights into their personalities and reactions, thoughts and behavior. We understand their emotional traumas, fears, hopes, unfulfilled dreams, reactions, relationships, and the horror of facing the inevitability of life’s end. We all expect our days to end, but we don’t expect to suddenly learn its exact time in advance. As this seemingly ordinary woman points to each passenger and says, “cause of death, age of death” their imaginations run wild as they wonder if she is giving them a gift or is actually cursing them.
Ultimately, the novel asks you how you would spend your time if you knew how limited your time would be? The cause of death and the age of death can be a devastating piece of knowledge. Let me end by writing that I really enjoyed listening to this book. I enjoyed the writing style of the author. She used just the right amount of expression for every scene, and the audio narrators were amazing as they portrayed each character authentically.