Meghan O’Rourke’s Slate series of reflections on the loss of her mother provides, in a complementary way, some other ways to look at death and grieving. Romm’s memoir was fresh in my mind when I read the seven parts to O’Rourke’s pieces from start to finish. After all, there must be other interpretations, other aspects to adjustment, to acceptance — both by the dying and by their survivors.
But I was not persuaded (and O’Rourke is not after any mind-changing; the grief-striken are in a far different place) of the potential for anything short of the angry, wounding ricochets of loss Romm documented.
(c) 2009 by Mark Underwood
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