In the short story “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried,” Amy Hempel explores the last moments with a loved one who is dying. Indeed, the narrator is visiting her best friend at the hospital while she is sick and about to die. We understand that she comes late to visit her and that she has been here for a while thanks to the interactions with the doctors, for example.
The first person narration helps to engage the reader with the main character and to provide insight about what is going on during this visit. It also allows the reader to have access to the memories that the narrator is recollecting during this visit with, for example, the memories of the time they were in college together in the same dorm. We can also notice the switch between past and present tense throughout the story. It is confusing, but it shows how this process affects everything and especially time.
Indeed, in this story, Amy Hempel writes of the end of a life that puts an end to a relationship. By writing these exchanges between the two best friends that are inoffensive and humorous, it creates a gap between this banter and the actual tragic situation of the death of this girl. This kind of contrast is also present in the personalities of the two characters: one is fearless; the other is fearful. One knows everything, or so it seems, and the other is full of questions. It also shows that the one who is dying doesn’t have the same access to the real world and create a feeling that her disease and the idea that she is mortal allows her not to be afraid of doing crazy things because she is aware that she is going to die. The narrator represents the fact that by being in contact and by living in the world, we develop fears that prevent us from doing anything if it is really intense. This underlying question is deep and questions the way we live or take things for granted because we don’t realize that some people crave doing anything but being sick or away from the actual world.