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toebean5's review
3.0
Like many people of my age who grew up voraciously reading every book about the Holocaust, I was familiar with the author's classic The Upstairs Room. I saw this book and thought, 'oh, right- what ever happened to her afterwards?' I didn't realize that the book was what the subtitle indicates- a memoir of the month in which she revisits her 'upstairs room' and her husband commits suicide.
The whole book felt very, very raw- like peering into someone's brain while they are processing a fresh trauma- and I felt uncomfortably voyeuristic. This was powerfully written, but very hard to read- both due to the nature of the content and because of the writing style. I really mean it- it was like peering into her brain: jumpy and nonlinear and stream-of-consciousness and all. I hope this helped her better process the trauma, the grief, the questions, the lack of answers, and everything else that the surviving family of a death by suicide go through. Just... very difficult.
The whole book felt very, very raw- like peering into someone's brain while they are processing a fresh trauma- and I felt uncomfortably voyeuristic. This was powerfully written, but very hard to read- both due to the nature of the content and because of the writing style. I really mean it- it was like peering into her brain: jumpy and nonlinear and stream-of-consciousness and all. I hope this helped her better process the trauma, the grief, the questions, the lack of answers, and everything else that the surviving family of a death by suicide go through. Just... very difficult.
asurges's review
4.0
Starts off strong, but the narrative focus is lost about halfway through. I get what the author is doing (making you experience her sense of vertigo), but we needed an anchor to help us through the story.
bluenicorn's review
3.0
Like many people of my age who grew up voraciously reading every book about the Holocaust, I was familiar with the author's classic The Upstairs Room. I saw this book and thought, 'oh, right- what ever happened to her afterwards?' I didn't realize that the book was what the subtitle indicates- a memoir of the month in which she revisits her 'upstairs room' and her husband commits suicide.
The whole book felt very, very raw- like peering into someone's brain while they are processing a fresh trauma- and I felt uncomfortably voyeuristic. This was powerfully written, but very hard to read- both due to the nature of the content and because of the writing style. I really mean it- it was like peering into her brain: jumpy and nonlinear and stream-of-consciousness and all. I hope this helped her better process the trauma, the grief, the questions, the lack of answers, and everything else that the surviving family of a death by suicide go through. Just... very difficult.
The whole book felt very, very raw- like peering into someone's brain while they are processing a fresh trauma- and I felt uncomfortably voyeuristic. This was powerfully written, but very hard to read- both due to the nature of the content and because of the writing style. I really mean it- it was like peering into her brain: jumpy and nonlinear and stream-of-consciousness and all. I hope this helped her better process the trauma, the grief, the questions, the lack of answers, and everything else that the surviving family of a death by suicide go through. Just... very difficult.
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