Cover 8

Grief Is Love

Grief Is Love

2022 • 142 pages

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Average rating1

15

Awful. Started off kind of bad: I found the author unpleasant but not intolerable. Right at the halfway mark, in the chapter titled Grace, that changed. For the worse: TL;DR author's former Harvard roommate (yes, author makes sure to write Harvard, not college) can't attend author's mother's funeral, for a valid reason; roommate explains “the funeral is the beginning of grief, and it makes more sense to show up when other people stop showing up”; author ends their friendship. Roommate continues making efforts to reach out. Significant efforts. Author relents... then writes, seriously, about grace as if SHE, the author, is the one manifesting grace by “forgiving” the roommate. (I just reread that section, to make sure I didn't misinterpret. I don't think I have.)

We all grieve differently. I don't wish to make light of the author's pain, but I will say that none of it resonated with me. It just baffled me. I found her entitled, self-absorbed, high-drama, and even mean-spirited at times.

July 2, 2022