This was one of those books that had been on my "to read" list for a long time. Then when I thought about reading it the timing was horribly wrong. The time was finally right. This is a book focused on the sudden death of Didion's husband, author John Gregory Dunne. At the time their daughter, Quintana, was lying in a hospital in a coma. The couple returned home from visiting her to have dinner when Dunne suffered a massive heart attack and died, not so different from my own husband's death as he got ready for bed one night. Didion writes of the surrealness that surrounds you during times like that, odd things you remember and the details you forget. How one can function on autopilot for many things and be lost at sea for others. And how you will see or hear something that makes you think "I need to tell (the dead spouse) about that" before realizing once again that you can't. While coping with the grief of her husband's death, Didion also had to deal with not one, but two nearly fatal illnesses suffered by her daughter and did it with great strength and solidarity. The important point I took away from this book is the difference between grieving and mourning and how grieving is active and temporary but mourning is a lasting process that changes as time passes but never really goes away completely.
No comments:
Post a Comment