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A review by jannelissa
Geometry of Grief: Reflections on Mathematics, Loss, and Life by Michael Frame
2.0
‘’In the dark hours between midnight and dawn, we are alone with our thoughts. This is when we best sift through our personal grief.’’
Geometry of grief is a book with a fascinating concept, written by mathematician Michael Frame. With the book, the author tries to provide the reader with parallels between geometry and grief in a hope this might help to cope with situations of severe grief.
The books starts very promising with many beautifully written description of grief and the complexity of the emotion/situation. A citation:
‘’Grief is a response to an irreversible loss. A corollary: there is no anticipatory grief. To generate grief rather than sadness, the thing lost must carry great emotional weight, and it must pull back the veil that covers a transcendent aspect of the world.’’
As a mental health professional (physician), I found this part of the book very readable and relatable, yet at the same time honest, personal and philosophical.
But than I got lost. The author writes ‘’You may feel that we’ve wondered a long way from thoughts of grief, but we haven’t.’’ I personally just couldn’t follow. The author makes extensive parallels between geometry, or more general mathematics, and patterns of a grief response. Maybe I’m just not passionate enough about maths or maybe it’s been too long since I did abstract maths myself, but I got hopelessly lost.
In the final chapters of the book the authors sums it up very well with the combination of the combination of the following two sentences:
‘’Now I don’t know if this approach will be of use to someone whose thinking is not primarily geometrical or visual’’.
And
‘’We cannot enter the personal hell of another, but we can imagine our hell if we inhabited their situation’’.
I think it’s exactly that: this book is an amazing tool for those that try to create an order into the chaos, but in the way which for many others seems very abstract: through geometry. I think I just wasn’t the right target audience, and sincerely hope this book will find the right readers. Because grief is a heartbreaking process and anyone out there struggling should be able to find a relatable tool to guide and feel less alone.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a review.
Geometry of grief is a book with a fascinating concept, written by mathematician Michael Frame. With the book, the author tries to provide the reader with parallels between geometry and grief in a hope this might help to cope with situations of severe grief.
The books starts very promising with many beautifully written description of grief and the complexity of the emotion/situation. A citation:
‘’Grief is a response to an irreversible loss. A corollary: there is no anticipatory grief. To generate grief rather than sadness, the thing lost must carry great emotional weight, and it must pull back the veil that covers a transcendent aspect of the world.’’
As a mental health professional (physician), I found this part of the book very readable and relatable, yet at the same time honest, personal and philosophical.
But than I got lost. The author writes ‘’You may feel that we’ve wondered a long way from thoughts of grief, but we haven’t.’’ I personally just couldn’t follow. The author makes extensive parallels between geometry, or more general mathematics, and patterns of a grief response. Maybe I’m just not passionate enough about maths or maybe it’s been too long since I did abstract maths myself, but I got hopelessly lost.
In the final chapters of the book the authors sums it up very well with the combination of the combination of the following two sentences:
‘’Now I don’t know if this approach will be of use to someone whose thinking is not primarily geometrical or visual’’.
And
‘’We cannot enter the personal hell of another, but we can imagine our hell if we inhabited their situation’’.
I think it’s exactly that: this book is an amazing tool for those that try to create an order into the chaos, but in the way which for many others seems very abstract: through geometry. I think I just wasn’t the right target audience, and sincerely hope this book will find the right readers. Because grief is a heartbreaking process and anyone out there struggling should be able to find a relatable tool to guide and feel less alone.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a review.