A series of severe personal losses and crises prompted freelance writer Cole's examination of grief as a transforming experience. While a college senior, she discovered the lump on her lover's jaw that signaled his immediate, harsh bout with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy; within that year her mother's terminal cancer was diagnosed. Not long after her mother's death in 1975, Cole was held hostage by Muslim terrorists in her B'nai B'rith Washington, D.C., office; in the years that followed her marriage, she suffered through two lost pregnancies and a lengthy struggle with infertility. These events provide the framework for Cole's examination of the grieving process and the possibility it offers--or its imperative--that one acknowledge sorrow but also let go of negated dreams and dashed hopes to make room for "a new life." While some readers may object to the repetitive, detailed depiction of Cole's personal travails, most will find wisdom in her nonprescriptive distillation of the psychological literature on grieving and its rendering in literary works. One is inspired by her ultimate willingness to cast off the burdens of regret and sorrow to embrace new, unexpected joy. First serial to McCall's.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In her young adulthood, Cole was numbed by double trouble--her mother's death and her boyfriend's painful albeit successful struggle with cancer. Subsequently, her own life was threatened as a hostage. Following her marriage, she suffered miscarriages and had to face the psychological pain engendered by infertility. The combination of these sad events triggered her research into the effects of loss. This book combines autobiographical reflections, interviews, and brief excerpts from psychological literature. It offers much insight into the grief process, suggesting that a person changes rather than recovers, and that ultimately a griever must establish a new identity. The topical chapters are cohesive, but they stand more as independent units than an integrated book. Nonetheless, Cole speaks eloquently and poignantly to anyone who has suffered a loss.
- Carol R. Glatt, VA Medical Ctr. Lib., Philadelphia
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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