Customer Reviews

Light in Blue Shadows

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"Light in Blue Shadows" is a jewel-like recounting of Edie Hartshorne's immense journey through the darkness of her son's apparent suicide, as she emerges back into life. Her story, so tenderly written, so personal, makes me appreciate my own life more, and awakens that sometimes slippery knowledge that we are strong, resilient beings who seek light.

She organically sieved from her days and her interactions the glimmers of light and reminders of life that came her way. And, somehow, her intractable grief did, in fact, transform. It is a miracle, it is a mystery, and she has thankfully chronicled it lest we ever forget that it is possible. I can see that I can use her book as a resource for myself as a reminder of this precious truth.

Her choice to write each offering in succinct, pointed bits was brilliant, as I was able to steep in each event, thought, or letter, as a meditation, or a poem. As haiku reverberates through spaciousness, so do each of Edie's chapters.

With honesty, humor, and a very gifted and real voice, Edie Hartshorne has offered a personal and universal experience of loss of a beloved.

Edie Hartshorne's memoir "Light in Blue Shadows" overflows with gracious tenderness, courage, and mercy. It is at once a testament to a mother's love for her family, and for life; an openly told, deep, and plainly spoken tale of loss; and a generous gift of witness.

With delicate, incisive, and astute attention, Hartshorne unfolds her story with forthright grace, honesty, and a pure poetry. Her willingness to express sorrow in its acute, daily, form -with great respect for both the process and the reader- allows us to face pain - hers and our own - with sincere gentleness.

When, in time, Hartshorne invites us to walk into the simplicity and intimacy of her garden of self-reflection, we can do so with equal respect, tapping into wells of universal kindness and compassion in the midst, and aftermath, of intense grief.

These are lessons that no one can borrow from another. Yet here we are gifted with so many life-giving images and truths that the heart breaks open time and again: First with tears of fear, empathy, and recognition. Then, with the prized tears of clarity, understanding, gratitude, and joy.

In her beautiful portrait of love and family, Edie Hartshorne gives us the gift of transformation. This is a book to be cherished and shared with all who seek hope, solace, and courage in the face of death and loss.

c 2007 Judith-Kate Friedman

Edie Hartshorne. Light in Blue Shadows

If you have lost a child or have a friend who has lost a child, this book is for you. The author recounts the shocking loss of her elder son to what was initially judged a drug-induced suicide. Family and friends found this verdict inexplicable, and after intense research by the young man's father, it was changed to accidental death.

But still the author and her family had to deal with a gaping hole in their lives and make sense of their loss. The author tells this story in a sequence of exquisitely drawn vignettes, counterposed with letters directly addressed to her son. These letters are in places pretty raw; there is no attempt in this text to mediate anguish. What one sees instead is an individual and a family drawing on deep roots of culture, both American Quaker and Japanese Buddhist, to work their way forward from the experience of loss to a state of renewed strength. In the process, the author succeeds in calling back the spirit of her son and reintegrating his spirit into her life and the lives of her family and friends.

It is a remarkable odyssey that is described in this book. As someone who has also lost a son, I can assure readers that if they persevere with Hartshorne's account they will be richly rewarded by it.

For me one of the very special aspects of this book is how it reveals the grace of healing that is available to us if we are willing to openly face our most overwhelming losses. Edie Hartshorne's journey through grief is a profound , deeply human and deeply moving story. This book is a teaching for us. It is a clear description of a process of growth both personal, and I believe universal as well, in that we can as readers feel the expanding and deepening of Hartshorne's heart and soul by the test of this most devestating trial by fire. But in the narration her humanness, vulnerability, and tenderness keep this story our story, any of us, all of us - the fragility and poignancy of living this human existence.

An extraordinary book! Edie Hartshorne gives a vivid description of her horror at the news of her son's unexpected death, poetically shares her feelings and thoughts through the depths of grief, and then brings us through to her resurgence as more fully alive, more fully attuned to the love and philosophical beauty in the world.

Light in Blue Shadows shares what the author went through upon the unexpected death of her twenty year old son--from the first blow through the purification of intense suffering to eventual spiritual expansion (the awesome journey we all must take sooner or later). This is a beautiful and deep book, gripping from the start, and so naturally--exquisitely--written. Many passages are pure poetry--are pure--and bring a lot of tears. It is very attentive, very sensitive, and very very intelligent. It has a big range. All that the author knows of life had a place to manifest here. The book is really a life memoir, as well as a diary of her mourning for her son Jonathan. I appreciated the shifting kaleidoscope of family and generations Hartshorne creates, and that each person who appears is seen as a jewel. The story of her adopted daughter Joemy, alongside her own grieving through letters to her son, creates a sense of balance and wholeness: Joemy who is farther along in overcoming her losses, Edie who is being undone by hers and only beginning to reintegrate. Light in Blue Shadows is a Love story. One certainly feels the mother's wide open heart--opened by suffering--and her insuppressible joie de vivre too. And I was left with the feeling that her son had lived a very blessed life. This costly story is a gift and a blessing for all. I'm sure this book is going to have a long life.

--Janine Canan MD, author and psychiatrist

This book is excellent for anyone who is dealing with any type of loss or who is grieving from a specific loss. From out of the depths of loniness the reader is brought into the light and is finally able to be at peace and have a better understanding of the loss they have suffered as experienced by the author. The reader is taken on a sad journey but in the end peace and acceptance prevail. I found this book to be like food for my heart as the wisdom is so profound. It is amazing what the human heart can do to heal itself, from being overwhelmed with sorrow and grief to finally finding joy and a sense of peace. I loved the message in this book.

A highly recommended simple and deeply moving account of loss, grief, and transformation, one that applies to all manner of loss.

"LIGHT IN BLUE SHADOWS," EDIE HARTSHORNES ACCOUNT OF HER SONS SUDDEN DEATH IS REMARKABLE AND WILL SPEAK DIRECTLY TO THE HEART OF ANYONE WHO HAS A CHILD, ANYONE WHO HAS FACED TRAGEDY. AND ANYONE WHO HAS MADE MEANING OF MEANINGLESS LOSS.
AND IT IS SO WELL WRITEN!
ALL OF US WHO BEAR CHILDREN KNOW THAT EITHER THEY WILL SEE US DIE OR WE WILL SEE THEM GO ... AND WE PRAY LIKE HELL THAT THEY OUTLIVE US. SUCH, WE IMAGINE, IS THE "NATURAL" ORDER OF THINGS.
I BURIED MY LITTLE BROTHER WITH MY MOTHER. PAUL AT 30 WAS SWEPT UP IN VISION AND WANDERED INTO THE FORESTS OF NEW MEXICO, WAS GONE FOR 4 YEARS UNTIL A DEER HUNTER FOUND HIS SKELETON. THERE IS AN ESSENTIAL SOLITUDE IN CARRYING TRAGEDY IN A WORLD OF OBLIGATORY AND SUPERFICIAL HAPPINESS AND DISTRACTION AND THERE IS A SWEETNESS TO THOSE CLOSE FRIENDS WHO STAND ALONGSIDE YOU. I GAVE MY MOTHER "LIGHT" AND SHE RECEIVED IT AS I DID. BALM. DETAILS RESONATE. "YOU SON COMMITTED SUICIDE" EDIE WAS TOLD. "THE TRAIL IS COLD" SAID THE TESUQUE TRIBAL POLICE. DID PAUL OR EDIES SON COMMIT SUICIDE? THE SOUL SUSPENDS IN THE EXCRUCIATING QUESTION AND IS REMADE THERE. THE GRACE OF "LIGHT" IS HOW EDIE FOLDS THE REMAKING OF THE SOUL THROUGH THE VALE OF UNCERTAINTY INTO MEDITATION PRACTICE AND ELEGANT, UNCOMPROMISED PROSE. "LIGHT IS A GIFT TO THE WORLD.

Her book is one of the best books I read in 2008. I have never read such an honest and vivid description of grief and the joy of living. I am astounded at how real and beautiful "Light in Blue Shadows" is. Very much worth buying.