Sorrow's Company: Great Writers on Loss and Grief

Most books addressing grief tend to be serviceable self-help guides, while more complex and poetic voices emerge in novels or memoirs. This book--which contains essays and memoir excerpts--bridges the gap, offering literary nonfiction in small segments. Henry, founding editor of Ploughshares, has grouped the pieces in sections on leave-taking, loss and legacies. In lively, wrenching snapshots, Debra Spark recalls her family's loving but ultimately inadequate efforts to save her sister from a young death. William Gibson observes the decline of his aged mother in uncompromising detail, describing her momentary helplessness when trying to finish her Christmas card list. Gordon Livingston's pared-down diary winnows the loss of his young son to the emotional bone: ""Being his father was the thing I was best at."" For Cheryl Strayed, taking heroin after her mother's death ""took away every scrap of hurt"" inside her. Andre Dubus, himself crippled in an accident, regrets that he had not ""lived enough and lost enough"" before his father's death to be able to express his love. The Japanese concept of Ukiyo--a floating, shadowy world--inspires James Alan McPherson's essay on his recovery from a coma, as his community of friends provided valuable support and led him to reconnect with the family from which he was estranged. ""There is plenty, in all of us, not to love,"" writes Rebecca McClanahan, paraphrasing her dying surrogate mother. ""Yet plenty remains."" (Feb.)