An epistolary novel - this is how the French writer and playwright Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt described the genre of his work. Oscar and the Pink Lady is a summary of a long eventful life, compressed into a few fleeting days. We learn about everything that happens in the soul of a terminally ill boy and in the world around him from Oscar's daily letters to God. The kid writes this peculiar report at the request of Rosa's grandmother, an incoming hospital nurse who has become a good angel for Oscar.
Unfulfilled patient
To begin with, we will outline the situation in which a ten-year-old boy with leukemia is located. It is impossible to do without a description of the place of events when retelling a brief summary. Oscar and the Pink Lady is a dramatic story set in a children's hospital, where other boys and girls lie besides Oscar. The head of the department, Dr. Dusseldorf really hoped that the baby will be able to defeat the disease, but even a bone marrow transplant did not give a positive result.
Oscar understands that he has become an unpleasant, that is, an uncomfortable patient. Doctors, nurses and other clinic staff behave deliberately politely, look sad, and if they laugh, they do it louder than usual. Even Oscar's peers, should he talk to them about the impending death, behave like adults and try to take the conversation aside.
Who are Popcorn, Bacon and Einstein
Despite many sad moments, a life-affirming force is the main preamble of the Oscar and the Pink Lady. The summary of the book would not be complete without meeting the young inhabitants of the hospital wards.
The boys, friends of Oscar, of course, have normal names, and they got their nicknames because of ailments that left an imprint on their appearance. Einstein, a patient with hydrocephalus, has a too big head. Bacon groans at night in pain, as a significant part of his body is affected by burns, and Popcorn is severely obese. Oscar himself, because of the unnaturally elongated shape of the skull of a boy teasing "Egg Head".
Girls in the hospital ward, too, were not left without nicknames. Sandrina, forced to wear a black wig due to hair loss as a result of chemotherapy, is called a Chinese woman. The baby with bluish transparent skin, the inhabitants of the clinic came up with a gentle and mysterious name Peggy Blue.
Meet Grandma Rosa
Probably, it is necessary to explain why the novel Oscar and the Pink Lady, the summary of which we are trying to reproduce, is called that way. To brighten up the stay of children in the clinic, voluntary carers come here several times a week, ready to take care of seriously ill patients and play with recovering patients. The pink uniform distinguishes volunteers from other hospital staff.
Oscar's attention was attracted by the oldest of women, he began to call her grandmother Rosa. Asked how old she was, she joked: “You still won’t remember the thirteen-digit number!” But the “pink aunt” revealed the secret to the boy: in her youth she was engaged in wrestling, performed in the arena under the name of the Stranglers from Languedoc. Whether this was true or a beautiful fantasy is unknown. But common secrets brought Oscar and the pink lady together, became the beginning of their friendship.
Frustration in people
The boy understands that he does not have long to live, but he is very upset that no one wants to honestly tell him about it. About this can not be silent summary. “Oscar and the Pink Lady” is a work, one of the ideas of which could be conveyed with just one phrase: “Lying for salvation is not such a pleasant thing.”
Dr. Dusseldorf informs the boy's parents about the failure of the treatment. They are upset, stunned, but, feeling their helplessness before the impending disaster, they are trying to pretend that nothing terrible is happening, and find no other way out than to present their son with expensive toys. The child finds himself face to face with his spiritual torment, not feeling support from his family, begins to hate mom and dad.
Gaining faith
Oscar decides to ask Grandma Rosa about why everyone around is bashfully silent about the truth. A wise woman calmly replies: “Why should they tell you that you already know perfectly well?” The kid calms down and is imbued with confidence in the carer - the only person who could discern a complete personality in the boy.
This could conclude our brief retelling. Oscar and the pink lady became friends, the boy resigned himself to his sad fate and prepared to accept it as an inevitable reality. Grandmother Rosa explained to the young sufferer that illness is not a punishment, but the same pattern of being as birth or death. The boy has no more than two weeks to live. He wants the nurse to visit him daily, and begins to write his touching letters to God.
Day of the Decade
It is sad and unbearably painful to realize that the little man will soon die from an incurable disease. But we already mentioned that the Oscar and the Pink Lady is a summary of a long, happy life. Where medicine is powerless, there is always a place for a miracle. Oscar will not die a very young, thoughtless boy, he will live to a respectable age of 110 years.
True, every new decade a growing man will have to go through in just one day. Grandmother Rosa came up with an unusual game for Oscar, and the boy gratefully accepted these rules, recording his impressions of each decade lived. And although his life path is similar to the sprint distance, from this he does not become less vivid. If something fails or doubts arise, Grandma Rosa comes to the rescue to protect her from offenders and support her with good advice.
Magical New Year's Eve
This part can be called the culmination of the novel Oscar and the Pink Lady. A brief description of each new day encompasses an era of dying life. December 19th. This morning the boy was born, and by evening he was already 10 years old.
At noon on the following day, Oscar turns fifteen, and he confesses his love to Peggy Blue, a girl whom he had long liked. A twenty-year-old man proposes to his beloved and receives her consent. Everything is adult here! They even kissed, touching their tongues. Oscar is a little concerned about the events, believing that children are born from such kisses.
Weakening under the onslaught of the disease, the boy increasingly wants to sleep. Grandma Rosa finds this simple explanation: “Of course, at age 20 young people walk at night, and during the day do not mind lying in bed!”
A growing up baby shares his impressions of each day with the fearless Strangler from Languedoc and transfers them to paper in letters to God, if not completely, but only a brief summary. Oscar and the pink lady are still friendly, he even offers to “adopt” her, but his relationship with his parents remains strained.
The boy is thirty years old. His "wife" Peggy Blue undergo surgery, the blue skin of the girl gradually takes on a normal color. Time flies hundreds of times faster, and our hero is a forty-year-old man. He makes a terrible mistake - allows a girl named Brigitte to kiss herself. “Nothing,” Grandma Rosa reassures, “men between the ages of 40 and 50 are always trying to attract the attention of other women to make sure they are irresistible.” I hope Peggy Blue will forgive you. ”
Cognition of the truth and pacification
It is impossible to convey the entire depth of the plot, retelling its brief content. Oscar and the Pink Lady is a work that must be read on its own. Moreover, according to many people, the novel captures literally from the first lines, envelops in the magic of the author’s syllable, makes you think about the essence of life and the meaning of life.
In the remaining few days before his departure, Oscar manages to do many important things. He finally finds a common language with his parents. Of course, here it was not without the help of grandmother Rosa. The boy understands that people are weak and cannot be likened to God, he persuades Dr. Dusseldorf not to blame himself for the powerlessness of a terrible disease.
On a frosty winter day, the soul left the child’s calf exhausted by the disease. “One hundred and ten years. It's too much. It's time to die. ” This was the last letter to God on behalf of the boy in the novel Oscar and the Pink Lady. Brief Summary of Briefs, in comparison with other similar Internet resources, this work may differ slightly. It all depends on the perception of the events described by one or another storyteller. One thing remains unchanged - the novel leaves a sad, but at the same time bright feeling, calls not to be afraid of death. The end of the earthly path is just a step towards gaining eternity.