About Grief - 9781566638586

About Grief is an unorthodox learning approach to a difficult and profoundly human experience. The authors are not physicians or psychologists, so the book is without clinical jargon. It is not a memoir of personal grief, so there is no wrenching saga to work through. And it is not a touchy-feely inspirational book, so, as the authors put it, "There are no doves on the jacket."

Using a variety ofsources from literature, drama, poetry, music, and interviews with grieving persons, the authors distill into plain terms and a user-friendly format some of the unspoken discoveries about grief. The book looks past the solemnity of grief to its messier aspects: the practical matters to sort out, the high-maintenance relatives to wrangle, the ugly feelings to vent. And it looks past the sadness of grief to its epiphanies: the personal lessons, the transformations, the intensifications of love. About Grief is composed of four chapters, each made up of straightforward essays that can be read in a single sitting. Chapter 1 explains the new normality that a grieving person experiences (e.g., stigma, presence, empathy), Chapter 2 talks about processing those things honestly (e.g., panic, sentimentality, shame, mistakes). Chapter 3 identifies some of the common consolations that grieving people find to help them soldier on (e.g., indulgence, sports, cynicism, rest). Chapter 4 explores grief's various forms of expression (e.g., self-narrative, gender, religion, music).

As a bereavement group leader recently said of About Grief, "This book is different. I can't recommend it highly enough." Different in approach, perspective, style.

We begin with a moment from the last scene of Shakespeare's King Lear. In Act V the elderly monarch walks on stage carrying his daughter Cordelia, dead in his arms. This is an iconic image of tragic loss, a metaphor for "the weight of grief."

Grief is weight.