Hamnet

My book club discussed this last night (well, as much as we could discuss it with two of the three attendees not having finished it). We agreed that the language and storytelling was beautiful.

When I first heard about this book, my instinct was to avoid it like the plague (har). A story about the loss of a child, and the associated grief? Right now, that's not for me. I've experienced the loss of a child. My daughter was stillborn three years ago. I know that grief intimately. Maybe someday in the future, I will be interested in revisiting this and seeing it through the lens of a farther-off past, but at this moment, I don't feel like I have enough distance to actively want to read about the grief of losing a child.

All that, and yes I still would have tried to get further through it for book club, because I am a Good Little Reader and I like talking about books even when they're difficult subjects. But the library sucked it back from me, and alas I didn't get more than halfway through. But my friend Jen confirmed last night that this was probably going to be really hard for me if I continue through the second half, so I think I'm going to let it lie, for now.