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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
Wow
Heavy at times but beautifully written. The author’s survey of immense grief and the way to comes in immeasurable waves gives body to the reality of her personal tragedy. Her writing takes an unimaginable situation and grief and causes the reader to experience it themself. Excellent memoir.
Heavy at times but beautifully written. The author’s survey of immense grief and the way to comes in immeasurable waves gives body to the reality of her personal tragedy. Her writing takes an unimaginable situation and grief and causes the reader to experience it themself. Excellent memoir.
emotional
sad
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Heartbreaking. Deraniyagala's entire family was killed in the tsunami and years later, she still aches for them. It is very brave of her to write about her life, but the book is tough to get through at times because she is bitter. She can't get over it. Not that she should, but the end isn't an uplifting treatise on overcoming tragedy, it is more of her accepting that she will hate her life and is just trying to get through it. Someone else said "grief porn" which I agree with to a point. I hope she is healing a bit after writing this, but the ending doesn't say.
A melancholic memoir of a mother/wife/daughter who lost her family in the 2004 Sri Lanka Tsunami. While on vacation at a beach resort in Sri Lanka with her mother, father, husband and two sons the tsunami struck dragging them all into it's waves, killing all but her. You will feel as if you're reading her personal diary. The book is so overwhelmingly honest...sentimental and heart breaking. Courageous living doesn't always look like big moments or dynamic demonstrations...sometimes courage is just moving from one minute to the next in the face of searing grief and loneliness.
[reviewed years after reading] This was a devastating read. I've certainly thought of it a few times in the years since reading it, and that means I must have enjoyed it. Some of the imagery has stuck with me, and I absolutely look at the ocean differently.
Grief is almost taboo in our culture. So many movies and books talk about finding love after loss, or just fast forward through the years after a death to pick up once they've "recovered." We rarely face loss head on and examine what it makes us think about and feel.
I admire Sonali's ability to convey a sense of the magnitude of her loss after she survives the tsunami and her husband, children, and parents do not. She talks a lot about both repressing and awakening memories of her family. They are gone, but how can you not imagine what they'd do in the situations you find yourself in? How can you not hold on to any little piece of them, while also repressing every thought of them? They are gone, but the spot they take up in her heart and mind is still there.
It's definitely bleak, but I didn't find it oppressive as other reviewers have said. I mean, you can read the back cover and know it's not going to be a happy book. Read it to get an insight to grief and loss and beautiful writing.
I admire Sonali's ability to convey a sense of the magnitude of her loss after she survives the tsunami and her husband, children, and parents do not. She talks a lot about both repressing and awakening memories of her family. They are gone, but how can you not imagine what they'd do in the situations you find yourself in? How can you not hold on to any little piece of them, while also repressing every thought of them? They are gone, but the spot they take up in her heart and mind is still there.
It's definitely bleak, but I didn't find it oppressive as other reviewers have said. I mean, you can read the back cover and know it's not going to be a happy book. Read it to get an insight to grief and loss and beautiful writing.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced