A general exploration of grief, elevated by succinct and deeply personal prose.
A memoirist pays tribute to a beloved parent and offers advice on how to live with loss.
In her new book, Duncan (Mom, Twice a Child, 2015) returns to the subject of her mother, Jeannette Sealey—this time focusing on her long struggle with dementia and her death in 2016 at the age of 95. “I felt I had been saying goodbye for the past 12 years as she slowly slipped away,” the author writes, and she structures the concise chapters of the book’s first section around the overwhelming emotions she experienced. She investigates the guilt that she felt when she placed her mother in a long-term care facility, her “anticipatory grief” as her mother’s condition worsened, and, lastly, her tremendous sense of loss. In the second part, Duncan reveals more about her family by revisiting memories of childhood and discussing other health problems that they faced; her father had lived with cancer and her sister, with multiple sclerosis. In the third section, the author offers gentle but straightforward advice to people in mourning and those trying to comfort them. She expands her observations of her own experiences to write about self-care and communicating with family members, especially children. Throughout all three sections, Duncan keeps her prose short and to the point. Each chapter feels like a contained vignette, giving readers a brief glimpse into the author’s life, her thoughts, and her grieving process. The short poems that she includes (such as “You Were the First”) are often sweet, and her advice in the third section offers very practical insights. However, in the first section, when she focuses on her mother’s last days, she evokes something much more emotional and profound.
A general exploration of grief, elevated by succinct and deeply personal prose.Pub Date: June 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5255-1810-2
Page Count: 156
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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