Reviews - Notes on Grief | The StoryGraph

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Notes on Grief

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

4.27 AVERAGE

friendofgosig's review against another edition

4.25

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

This was a really lovely insight into another person’s observations around the death of their father. I bought this when it first came out, the year after both the author’s father, and my own, had died. It is only now that I feel ready to read it - I was scared of the similarities and the differences of our experiences, though now I find these reassuring. I wonder what Adichie would write now, on her five year old grief?

thehappywriter's review

4.0

reflective sad medium-paced

cgharkness's review

4.0

“'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.”

Whether it is my own experience of grief that made me read this at 5 in the morning over contemplating whether I should watch another romcom movie to make myself feel better or just sleep. Suddenly, I am confronted with the sorrows of losing a loved one, a wound that I have tried so hard to ignore or have learned to live by. This line in particular reminded me of another quote I read somewhere that says,”maybe this longing is our way of surviving.”
And maybe, grief is here to stay because we have loved. It only took me an hour or so to read, but god do I feel like my life has been turned upside down and somehow held together by the fact that there is someone out there who understands — this book was a proof, and that was a comforting thought.