From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Family tragedy is healed by domestic routine in this quiet, tender memoir. When his daughter Amy died suddenly at the age of 38 from an asymptomatic heart condition, journalist and novelist Rosen-blatt (Lapham Rising) and his wife moved into her house to help her husband care for their three young children. Not much happens except for the mundane, crucial duties of child care: reading stories, helping with schoolwork, chasing after an indefatigable toddler who is the busiest person I have ever known, making toast to order for finicky kids. Building on the small events of everyday life, Rosenblatt draws sharply etched portraits of his grandchildren; his stoic, gentle son-in-law; his wife, who feels slightly guilty that she is living her daughter’s life; and Amy emerges as a smart, prickly, selfless figure whose significance the author never registered until her death. Rosenblatt avoids the sentimentality that might have weighed down the story; he writes with humor and an engagement with life that makes the occasional flashes of grief all the more telling. The result is a beautiful account of human loss, measured by the steady effort to fill in the void. (Feb. 16)
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I loved this book. It was funny and heartbreaking and sweet and sad. It was so real and sometimes raw and sometimes sugarcoated. I made the mistake of reading it on the car ride home from Madiline the Great’s funeral. (that’s what my shorties called my paternal grandmother) Thus there were times I was trying not to sob while getting ready to pump gas or take the shorties to the bathroom. It really made me think about how different the lives of my kids would be if something happened to the Detective or me.
I passed it on to Goldilocks who read it right away and liked it as well. It is very short and easy to read. Highly recommend.
I’m trying to stop checking out a ton of books that I will never be able to read in a month and then not reading any of them and having to renew or return. I’ve decided to try to finish the ones I have, then check out one at a time and supplement with already owned books (of which I have several hundred) and free Kindle books (of which there are a gajillion),
Library check outs:
The weed that strings the hangman’s bag : a Flavia de Luce mystery / Bradley, C. Alan
The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks / Skloot, Rebecca
The devil and Sherlock Holmes : tales of murder, madness, and obsession / Grann, David
Home safe : a novel / Berg, Elizabeth
Shiver / Stiefvater, Maggie
Dissolution / Sansom, C. J.
The love poems of Rumi
My sweet friend, Chrissy, forwarded your blog on to me with a note saying she thought I would like it because (A) You’re funny, and (B) You have chosen to nickname your kids in blog like I do with my daughter. Anyhow, she was right!
I hope to read your review of the Flavia de Luce mystery someday. I enjoyed the first one. It reminded me of the Trixie Belden books I loved from my childhood, only with test tubes and such.
And completely unrelated to this post, the police theme is brilliant.