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A review by jcbelk02
The Rules of Inheritance: A Memoir by Claire Bidwell Smith
4.0
While shopping at America’s Thrift, I found “The Rules of Inheritance” on sale for $1. I enjoy memoirs and thought the cover was interesting, so I bought it. Little did I know, this memoir would end up having a great impact on me. This book about the intricacy of grief and loss was extremely eye-opening for me, though I have never experienced much loss in my life. By recounting the loss of both of her parents to cancer, her own battle with grief, and what comes with losing someone important, Claire Bidwell Smith created a profound work of literature. By retelling stories from her own life categorized by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ five stages of grief, Smith identifies moments that she adverts from feeling her own grief, ending the book with “Acceptance”. Through this, she reveals that the only way to get through grief is to truly feel everything that comes with it.
As someone who lives with intense anxiety about losing those around me, I felt familiar with the sense of avoidance that Smith admitted to feeling for ten years after she lost her mother. After reading all of the book, I felt halfway prepared for whatever life throws at me in the future, though you can never truly prepare for the loss of loved ones. Smith portrays an important lesson about loss and grief in “The Rules of Inheritance”; there are no rules. The grieving process is not constrained to just five stages, and it is okay to feel your way through the darkness of losing a person you love. Smith’s storytelling abilities were touching, and she made even the grittiest parts of her life easier to read, simply because the reader knows that she lived through it. I felt comforted by the telling of Smith’s story starting as a teenager with no direction in life to growing up and finding exactly what made her happy and content, even with struggles in between the two.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this emotional, eye-opening book. I would definitely recommend this to people who have lost a loved one or those who fear losing loved ones. The stories that Smith tells about mental health, growing up, maturing (because growing up and maturing are two whole different things), loss, and grief are an extremely beautiful summation of works, and they would have a great impact on those who are interested in those topics and themes.
As someone who lives with intense anxiety about losing those around me, I felt familiar with the sense of avoidance that Smith admitted to feeling for ten years after she lost her mother. After reading all of the book, I felt halfway prepared for whatever life throws at me in the future, though you can never truly prepare for the loss of loved ones. Smith portrays an important lesson about loss and grief in “The Rules of Inheritance”; there are no rules. The grieving process is not constrained to just five stages, and it is okay to feel your way through the darkness of losing a person you love. Smith’s storytelling abilities were touching, and she made even the grittiest parts of her life easier to read, simply because the reader knows that she lived through it. I felt comforted by the telling of Smith’s story starting as a teenager with no direction in life to growing up and finding exactly what made her happy and content, even with struggles in between the two.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this emotional, eye-opening book. I would definitely recommend this to people who have lost a loved one or those who fear losing loved ones. The stories that Smith tells about mental health, growing up, maturing (because growing up and maturing are two whole different things), loss, and grief are an extremely beautiful summation of works, and they would have a great impact on those who are interested in those topics and themes.