#notesongrief

Book 102 of 2021. "Grief is a cruel kind of education. You learn how ungentle mourning can be, how full of anger. You learn how glib condolences can feel. You learn how much grief is about language, the failure of language and the grasping for language." Grief, I think is an inescapable part of the human experience. In this last year especially we've all experienced various degrees of gut wrenching grief. The loss of people. The loss of income. The loss of freedom. The loss of an old way of life. And for some the loss the person who meant more than words could ever encompass. This essay is a timely and relevant read in a time plagued with grief. The words in this essay leap off the pages, this grief tears into your heart. Chimamanda's loss will get under your skin and make you (unwittingly) think of how you will ever bear the loss of a parent. Its something we'll all have to survive. For the last few years, it's a fear I live with. Especially when I am far away from my parents. It's the main reason why I don't a single day without talking to them, even on days they drive me crazy (which they do with alarming regularity). Someday they won't be at the end of the line, someday they won't tease me about my sleeping. Someday they'll be a memory- of laughter and stories and history and inside jokes and feeling safe. Read this book braced for heartbreak. It was brilliant, visceral and raw and extraordinary. PS: You don't need to agree with everything a writer has to say/do/think to be blown away by their writing. #chimamandangoziadichie is a brilliant writer. Brilliant. I don't need to agree with all her views to read her work and love her writing. You can do both. Disagree. Think. Read. And not spontaneously combust. It's not that hard. . . . #whimsybookworm2021reads #notesongrief #essays #nonfiction #booksbooksbooks #bookstagram #unitedbookstagram #readwomen #womenwriters #quickreads #booklovers #bookworms #bookrecommendations #bookreviews #bookphotography #bookbloggers #booknerdigans #bookishfeatures (at India) https://www.instagram.com/p/CRRoATPpxwk/?utm_medium=tumblr

This book is a very intimate look into Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s family life and her relationships with her immediate family, specifically her father. She details the passing of her beloved father in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how she is processing the grief associated with his passing. She provides some advise, some humor, some sadness, some longing, and some memories as she shares this very personal experience with us, her readers. Notes on Grief is more than just a recounting of her father’s passing or how she’s processing the grief, she is also sharing advise and anecdotal stories to help ease anyone else that might be going through a death of a loved one. Though this may not be the intention of this book, to help ease grief, her writing puts you in a place where you can relate wholeheartedly and take something away that can be applied immediately. Reading this book automatically stirred emotions inside of me, as I’ve also lost a beloved father, and her writing soothed a place inside of me that made me want to share and relive the memories of my father, instead of being consumed by near-constant sadness that was normal for me. It took 7 years to finally confront my grief from the loss of my father. I had previously denied the fact that my dad was no longer here. Although I had my memories, they were not enough to ease my pain in the loss of my dad. I was utterly undone in my pain. This book provides the language I wish I had at the time of my father’s death. This book explains so much about the grieving process in ways that totally relate to me, and it helps me process a bit more through this lifelong adjustment of missing my father. I believe that grief never leaves. We just adjust to it. There will always be a void where that person used to fit, but CNA assures us that there is no ‘right way’ to grieve. You just do. No two persons are the same, and you should have grace with yourself during this process. “It is an act of resistance and refusal: grief telling you it is over and your heart saying it is not; grief trying to shrink your love to the past and your heart saying it is present.” (Continued in comments) #notesongrief https://www.instagram.com/p/CPOmrLzLol4/?utm_medium=tumblr

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