Sample Saturday is when I wade through the eleventy billion samples I have downloaded on my Kindle. I’m slowly chipping away and deciding whether it’s buy or bye. This week, three grief memoirs.
Don’t Put Yourself On Toast by Freddy Taylor
Summary: When Freddy was 21 years old, his dad, a larger-than-life TV producer, was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. Freddy draws on his journal at the time and his stepmother’s medical notes, to tell of his father’s struggle for life and of Freddy’s attempt to hold his family together using all the fun he can muster.
I’m thinking: Yes.
A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney
Summary: Delaney’s family moved from Los Angeles to London (so that he could work on Catastrophe), an adventure that would bind them tightly together. But in 2016, his one-year-old son, Henry, was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and the London life that they had created was turned upside down.
I’m thinking: Yes.
Lost & Found by Kathryn Schulz
Summary: Eighteen months before Kathryn Schulz’s father died, she met the woman she would marry. In Lost & Found, she weaves the story of those relationships into an exploration of the role that loss and discovery play in all of our lives.
I’m thinking: Yes.
Oh, the Delaney would RUIN me. I’ve heard him speak about his son on TV and it’s just heartbreaking. He is **the** best defender of the NHS, too, and is very outspoken about it, which I love given the UK’s push towards an American-style health system. ie every person for yourself … if you can afford it, as opposed to the UK’s free service at the point of delivery.
Have you spotted Amy Bloom’s In Love about losing her husband to dementia? I don’t read many grief memoirs but love her fiction and found it very affecting.
I second the Bloom, it’s a very thoughtful, heartfelt book.
These all sound excellent, the Delaney was already on my radar but I’ve noted the other two down – thank you!
I’m enjoying the Schulz (though could possibly do with less of the philosophical context).
I heard Rob Delaney speak about his loss on the radio and it broke me. I admire him writing his book, but I really don’t think I could read it.