Notes on Grief
For all those tragic situations for which you think, “I don’t have the words..” - here are the words. I can’t say it better than this description from Good Reads: … “signature precision of language, and glittering, devastating detail on the page--and never without touches of rich, honest humor…” this book is Adichie’s beautiful sharing of her father’s death during the summer of 2020. Her inability to travel to Nigeria to be with him or the family, adds another layer of grieving and she acknowledges that though her loss is personal, collectively we are all in stages of bereavement for the way the world has turned in the last couple years. I found this book gave voice to feelings I couldn’t articulate myself and ultimately left me with hope. Here is a nugget: “It is an act of resistance and refusal: grief telling you it is over and your heart saying it is not: grief trying to shrink your love to the past and your heart saying it is present." And I hope she writes a biography of her father next! He’s fascinating and she barely touches on all he did; here she focuses on who he was to her - so touching! - Carrie