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A review by evangelinereed
Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death by Irvin D. Yalom
3.0
To get super dark for a moment, my therapist lent me this book after a conversation about my aging parents. The title (and particularly the subtitle) are extremely intimidating! I don't think I would have ever read it if I didn't have the pressure of a physical object lent to me that I eventually had to return. The book itself is a surprisingly easy read. It's accessible, well written, and straightforward without being too blunt.
At this point in my life, I don't feel much of the deep dread of death that some of the patients described in the book experience, but it was definitely interesting to spend some time staring directly at that thing I mostly try to ignore. I expected it to be morbid but it was surprisingly uplifting. Irvin Yalom's thesis is essentially that confronting your own mortality doesn't have to lead to fear and despair; instead it can make your life richer and more meaningful in its brevity. It reads like a grounded, practical counterpart to that dumb slogan "live each day like it's your last."
All in all, it took me about a day and a half to read and has given me quite a lot of food for thought. Reading it made me feel like I was forcing myself to creep down into the scary basement of my mind, only to find that it's really not so bad down there, and there's actually some pretty useful stuff.
At this point in my life, I don't feel much of the deep dread of death that some of the patients described in the book experience, but it was definitely interesting to spend some time staring directly at that thing I mostly try to ignore. I expected it to be morbid but it was surprisingly uplifting. Irvin Yalom's thesis is essentially that confronting your own mortality doesn't have to lead to fear and despair; instead it can make your life richer and more meaningful in its brevity. It reads like a grounded, practical counterpart to that dumb slogan "live each day like it's your last."
All in all, it took me about a day and a half to read and has given me quite a lot of food for thought. Reading it made me feel like I was forcing myself to creep down into the scary basement of my mind, only to find that it's really not so bad down there, and there's actually some pretty useful stuff.