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agda's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.0
It's hard to rate this, as it is such a personal book. I felt like I was reading Chimamanda's journal at the time and not necessarily a book.
As someone who often reads about grief, I felt like althought she told me what was happening that was it. It did not present something new to me, in the sense that it still seems like the work of someone who just now meet grief and not yet had the time to duel on it and elaborate about it. And I do not say this trying to make it sound like it was a poor book. It was an intimate one, I almost felt like an intruder at times.
It was beautiful and sad to hear about her love and I did like her narration.
As someone who often reads about grief, I felt like althought she told me what was happening that was it. It did not present something new to me, in the sense that it still seems like the work of someone who just now meet grief and not yet had the time to duel on it and elaborate about it. And I do not say this trying to make it sound like it was a poor book. It was an intimate one, I almost felt like an intruder at times.
It was beautiful and sad to hear about her love and I did like her narration.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
jakepasseri's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Death of parent
Death of the author's father is the cause of the grief throughout the text and goes through the pain around his deathadaoradk's review against another edition
emotional
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
ichthusangel's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.0
Grief is a cruel kind of education. You learn how ungentle mourning can be, how full of anger…You learn how much grief is about language, the failure of language and the grasping for language.
A short book chronicling a piece amongst the insurmountable grief Chimamanda feels when she loses her father. Grief, irreversible grief (i.e. death) especially, has an ache nothing else can replicate…I know it is not so much about what my father says as it is about being with him. A laugh that I will never laugh again. ‘Never’ has come to stay. ‘Never’ feels so unfairly punitive. For the rest of my life, I will live with my hands outstretched for things that are no longer there.
The author reflects on what she has said about grieving until now, what words she said to those who lost someone dear to them. She looks back and finds how flawed her opinions were, how shallow her words must’ve sounded. Grief hadn’t been hers until then, it belonged to other people, she muses, but now that she has felt grief, cried hysterically, she understands the sentiments deeply.
The book is as much as about grief as it is about love. The first line introduces the readers to the warmth in her family’s bonds despite the distance, despite the unfamiliar void of the pandemic. The more we read we find that while the book is merely a collection of ‘notes’ on grief, it is an ode to her father and how he loved, not just her but all his children, his wife, his homeland, his language, his subjects, his life. Her friends send her lines of her own book, Grief was the celebration of love, those who could feel real grief were lucky to have loved. And while it is true, it pains her to read her own words. She asks if love & happiness become weaknesses that leaves us defenceless in the face of grief.
The book isn’t black & white— all about grief & love though. There is self reflection, there is disbelief because of death, because of her unconscious mind’s betrayal, there are political issues, customs that aren’t compassionate to the grieving, confusion left in the wake of a global pandemic, a sense of belonging to a language & culture, a child’s wonder and the true nature of grieving.
My favourite thing about the book is how real it is. Often we are told the stages of grief in a way that it seems that one stage passes and others sets in, then another and when all five stages are done, you don’t grieve because time heals everything. The truth is we are humans. We aren’t trees how can sort their years into rings around their trunks. Our emotions & memories are jumbled. The disbelief, hurt, anger, regrets, acceptance, it exists together and keeps on moving. You don’t heal from pain, you learn to accept it, you learn to accommodate in you with all it’s tyranny and pain.
I am writing about my father in past tense, and I cannot believe I am writing about my father in the past tense.
I am writing about my father in past tense, and I cannot believe I am writing about my father in the past tense.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
nebraskanwriter's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Kidnapping, Death, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, and War
jessjess125's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
sophiehes's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
samarakroeger's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.75
would have benefitted from being longer; it just kind of ended
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
sakisreads's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
4.5
Chimamanda Adichie has quickly become one of my favourite authors as I work my way through her books. Although these are ‘notes’, Adichie wrote incredibly eloquently as she usually does and it was bittersweet reading through this. There was a sentimentality and yearning that can be found in anyone’s experience with grief 🥲 So beautiful and bitter. Thank you ❤️
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
lexihworth's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent