Isn't The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion supposed to be very good?
'Dear Diary, Today I was pompous and my sister was crazy.' 'Today, we were kidnapped by hill folk never to be seen again. It was the best day ever.'
Jayne ,'Safe'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
smonster - Jan 09, 2012 11:32:57 am PST #17387 of 28267
We won’t stop until everyone is gay.
Kat - Jan 09, 2012 11:34:29 am PST #17388 of 28267
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
It was quite good. Her newest book, Blue Nights, I believe, is supposed to marvelous dealing more with her grief over her daughter's death.
JZ - Jan 09, 2012 11:50:26 am PST #17389 of 28267
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.
C.S. Lewis's A Grief Observed is excellent (and a much deeper howl of grief than the rather remote title would suggest--he was simply absolutely determined to clearly see and name his own grief while he experienced it, because language was how he coped with absolutely everything) and also a pretty fast read.
If children's/YA is acceptable, there's always Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia.
Gloria Naylor's Mama Day doesn't dig into the grief until the last quarter of the novel, but it's wrenching and gorgeous.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, most definitely not for everyone (it was emphatically a big harrowing yes for me, but I'm a freak), but oh is it filled with sorrow and bereavement.
And Maxine Chernoff's 1991 novel Plain Grief (reviewed here by Hilma Wolitzer) is excellent (I recall liking it more than Wolitzer did, but she did like it quite a bit, and her review does a great job of quickly running through the complex narrative and all its varieties of grief).
DebetEsse - Jan 09, 2012 12:07:57 pm PST #17390 of 28267
Woe to the fucking wicked.
Huh. The community theatre I worked with is doing a one-woman production of the Didion.
The textbook quoted extensively from Lewis.
but I'm a freak
This is my problem with "normal people" book lists. I am not the typical student, in a variety of way.
Typo Boy - Jan 09, 2012 12:10:43 pm PST #17391 of 28267
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado
JZ - Jan 09, 2012 12:14:16 pm PST #17392 of 28267
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.
The textbook quoted extensively from Lewis.
Then the textbook is way better than the reading list!
And I just thought of two picture books for children that deal with the subject very movingly (surely better than the damn Notebook!):
megan walker - Jan 09, 2012 12:17:46 pm PST #17393 of 28267
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
So, I have an assignment for class. I must choose and read a book (fiction or non-fiction) related to grief and bereavement.
Joy Luck Club
ChiKat - Jan 09, 2012 12:23:04 pm PST #17394 of 28267
That man was going to shank me. Over an omelette. Two eggs and a slice of government cheese. Is that what my life is worth?
Marley and Me
megan walker - Jan 09, 2012 12:35:22 pm PST #17395 of 28267
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
I'd prefer Sarah's Key to Winter Garden.
Let the Great World Spin has multiple storylines about grief.
There's Revolution, which is bad history, but good writing. I thought the opening, which deals more with grief/bereavement than the rest, was really good.
megan walker - Jan 09, 2012 12:40:15 pm PST #17396 of 28267
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
Oh duh, one of my favorites, John Irving's A Widow for One Year. Actually probably any Irving. Or any Amy Tan.
Also, Paul Auster's The Book of Illusions.