How I Find Her [Paperback]

Genie Zeiger (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Genie Zeiger lives in Shelburne, Massachusetts, where she has led creative writing workshops and poetry classes for more than a decade. The winner of a Massachusetts Cultural Council award for poetry, she has received numerous grants to lead writing workshops at senior centers, public schools and for Hospice. As a trained Hospice volunteer, she has worked with patients, caregivers and with the bereaved. A collection of writings by the members of one of her bereavement groups, Oh, My Ashen Friend, was published in 1996. She leads workshops to explore Jewish identity through writing at various synagogues in the northeast including Keene, N.H., Greenfield, MA and Northampton, MA. Her first collection of poetry, Sudden Dancing, was published by Amherst Writers and Artists Press in 1988; her second, Leaving Egypt, was published by White Pine Press in 1995. Her memoir, How I Find Her : a mother's dying and a daughter's life, available in April of 2001, is published by Sherman Asher Publishing, with a German edition by Kinder Verlag. Ms. Zeiger serves as poetry editor for the Massachusetts Audubon Society's magazine, Sanctuary. She is a regular commentator on WFCR, public radio in Amherst, and has given public readings of her work at bookstores, synagogues, libraries, schools and hospitals. Her poems, stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Georgia Review, Tikkun, and The Sun, in which she has published over a dozen essays and interviews. Her work has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. A former psychotherapist and crisis clinician at a mental health center, she has an M.Ed. in Counseling Education from the University of Massachusetts and an MFA in writing from Vermont College.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Sherman Asher Publishing; First Edition edition (April 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890932167
• ISBN-13: 978-1890932169
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,779,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, April 12, 2002

By 

Jennifer LB Leese "Author/Reviewer" (Maryland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How I Find Her (Paperback)

...Ms. Zieger's book HOW I FIND HER is a heartwarming tale depicting the relationship between a mother and a daughter. Zieger takes the reader on a heartbreaking journey as a daughter deals with the decline of her beloved mother health who has Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's-related dementia.
As a daughter, I think of my own mother's health, and thank the Lord that she has lived over fifty years illness free. As a mother, I think about my own health, and wonder if I will be that fortunate. Thoughts of our mother's dying never really enter our thoughts until we are actually faced with the dilemma, and then it saddens us when we see our once lively and independent mothers slowly fall apart.
You will laugh, as you share in her childhood memories, and you will cry hearing of her moments of mourning.
Zieger has captured the beauty of emotions and sentiment between a mother and a daughter, as well as capturing the hardships of bereavement.
Zieger's words of getting on with your life after a tremendous loss are sure to give support to those who are suffering.

Genie Zieger lives in Shelburne, Massachusetts, where she has led creative writing workshops and poetry classes for over a decade. Ms. Zieger is a former psychotherapist and crisis clinician at a mental health center; she has an M.Ed. in Counseling Education from the University of Massachusetts and an MFA in writing from Vermont College.

I highly recommend Ms. Zieger's book, HOW I FIND HER...

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sharing a necessary journey, December 29, 2002

By 

Susan E Richmond (Acton, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How I Find Her (Paperback)

Poignant and often painfully honest, Genie Zeiger's book, How I Find Her, is a must for anyone who has experienced, or is still experiencing, the decline of a parent or other loved one through dementia. I found solace and insight in Ms. Zeiger's book in dealing with the mental slipping away of my own grandmother, who also, as the author so perceptively describes, has moments of amazing clarity and connection, even when seemingly lost to the present. The author shows incredible courage in describing her feelings, even when they are complicated mixtures of shame and love, revulsion and tenderness. She records with the honest eye of a camera, but with a poet's sensibility, lush language, and appreciation for the smallest and most moving details. I am grateful for this book, which occupies a necessary niche in writings about family wisdom and love.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a poetic guide for children of Alzheimer's victims, September 27, 2002

By 

Elizabeth Webster (State College, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How I Find Her (Paperback)

This memoir reads like a poetic guide for any child who has suffered through the dementia of a parent. Zeiger narrates her journey through several stages of grief from the time her mother enters a nursing home to her death. Initially, she torments herself with guilt for her inability to save her mother. But eventually, she begins to reconcile the image of the sick mother with the all powerful mother she knew as a child. Zeiger documents her mother's last words, and includes journal excerpts, poetry and lyrics throughout this profound narrative.