Good Book Good Grief

I'm reading Good Grief by Lolly Winston, and enjoying the hell out of it. It's about a 30-something woman whose husband dies of cancer, and the book follows her through the grieving process--not your neatly packed stages of grief mind you, but some real-people dysphoria kind of feel-it grieving, and it's funny too. Because, as RB and my phone-a-thons during The Darkest Hours attest to, if you can't be completely absurdly insanely hysterically funny, then you might as well take a benzo and go to bed.

Anyway, it's my pool book, I'm half way through it, and it's a good read. Believe me, or believe Publisher's Weekly:

"The grief is up already. It is an early riser, waiting with its gummy arms wrapped around my neck, its hot, sour breath in my ear."

Sophie Stanton feels far too young to be a widow, but after just three years of marriage, her wonderful husband, Ethan, succumbs to cancer. With the world rolling on, unaware of her pain, Sophie does the only sensible thing: she locks herself in her house and lives on what she can buy at the convenience store in furtive midnight shopping sprees. Everything hurts—the telemarketers asking to speak to Ethan, mail with his name on it, his shirts, which still smell like him. At first Sophie is a "good" widow, gracious and melancholy, but after she drives her car through the garage door, something snaps; she starts showing up at work in her bathrobe and hiding under displays in stores. Her boss suggests she take a break, so she sells her house and moves to Ashland, Ore., to live with her best friend, Ruth, and start over. Grief comes along, too—but with a troubled, pyromaniac teen assigned to her by a volunteer agency, a charming actor dogging her and a new job prepping desserts at a local restaurant, Sophie is forced to explore the misery that has consumed her. Throughout this heartbreaking, gorgeous look at loss, Winston imbues her heroine and her narrative with the kind of grace, bitter humor and rapier-sharp realness that will dig deep into a reader's heart and refuse to let go. Sophie is wounded terribly, but she's also funny, fresh and utterly believable. There's nary a moment of triteness in this outstanding debut.

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