A review by mollybwell
In a Dark Wood: What Dante Taught Me about Grief, Healing, and the Mysteries of Love by Joseph Luzzi

4.0

Without nostalgia. That summed this up for me. I found great comfort and truth in Luzzi’s grief. Perhaps I anticipated a pedantic use of classic literature to make his grief more noble. I was wrong, instead realizing the true worth in a writer who can experience grief and find solace in literature. A good teacher needs empathy and humility and Joseph Luzzi shares his anguish in contemporary times while sharing his experience in the light of a poem written almost 700 years ago. Human experience hasn’t changed and heartbreak is the same no matter the historic or contemporary timeframe.