GOOD GRIEF
Lolly Winston, . . Warner, $18 (344pp) ISBN 978-0-446-53304-1
"The grief is up already. It is an early riser, waiting with its gummy arms wrapped around my neck, its hot, sour breath in my ear." Sophie Stanton feels far too young to be a widow, but after just three years of marriage, her wonderful husband, Ethan, succumbs to cancer. With the world rolling on, unaware of her pain, Sophie does the only sensible thing: she locks herself in her house and lives on what she can buy at the convenience store in furtive midnight shopping sprees. Everything hurts—the telemarketers asking to speak to Ethan, mail with his name on it, his shirts, which still smell like him. At first Sophie is a "good" widow, gracious and melancholy, but after she drives her car through the garage door, something snaps; she starts showing up at work in her bathrobe and hiding under displays in stores. Her boss suggests she take a break, so she sells her house and moves to Ashland, Ore., to live with her best friend, Ruth, and start over. Grief comes along, too—but with a troubled, pyromaniac teen assigned to her by a volunteer agency, a charming actor dogging her and a new job prepping desserts at a local restaurant, Sophie is forced to explore the misery that has consumed her. Throughout this heartbreaking, gorgeous look at loss, Winston imbues her heroine and her narrative with the kind of grace, bitter humor and rapier-sharp realness that will dig deep into a reader's heart and refuse to let go. Sophie is wounded terribly, but she's also funny, fresh and utterly believable. There's nary a moment of triteness in this outstanding debut.
Reviewed on: 03/01/2004
Genre: Fiction
Compact Disc - 978-1-58621-695-5
Hardcover - 542 pages - 978-0-7862-6613-5
Mass Market Paperbound - 416 pages - 978-0-446-61596-9
Mass Market Paperbound - 450 pages - 978-0-446-61906-6
Open Ebook - 978-0-7595-1042-5
Open Ebook - 196 pages - 978-0-446-59585-8
Open Ebook - 1 pages - 978-0-7595-1046-3
Other - 978-0-7595-1047-0
Other - 978-0-446-40530-0
Paperback - 357 pages - 978-0-446-69484-1
Peanut Press/Palm Reader - 978-0-7595-1048-7