Book Reviews: Books on Grief

I've already posted some reflections on some of the books I've run into.

Sr Joyce Rupp's Praying Our Goodbyes I liked so much that I bought my own copy after borrowing a copy from a local hospice program. I had already mentioned this and said I'd add a few more thoughts on it. There are a number of things I like about it. For one thing, it is very very gentle. That automatically goes a long way with me these days. It does not shy away from confronting the question of Why. It strongly connects grieving with suffering more generally and approaches this in a very Christian, though not always explicitly Catholic, manner. It is almost poetic ... one chapter is poetically titled "The Ache of Autumn within Us." That just goes right to my heart in so many ways. Last but not least, the book provides a series of prayers for all kinds of Goodbyes, and these are beautiful and faith-filled prayers.

Thomas R. Golden and James E. Miller, When a Man Faces Grief I've already talked about, but just want to add a couple of things. One is that I've gone ahead and ordered my own copy, I like it so much. Costs about $7 on Amazon.com, and that's a price that's hard to beat. Yet this slim volume is packed with such wisdom. It provides a concise, and practical approach to the topic. Oh and if you flip the book over, you get a slightly different title - A Man You Know is Grieving - addressed of course to family and others concerned about a grieving man.

James Bryan Smith's Room of Marvels is a bit different from other books I've run into. For one thing, its a fictionalized story-like novel rather than non-fiction. The book was loaned to me by a hospice worker after I said that I like stories very much. Alas, this particular story didn't appeal to me much at all. Rather than a narrative-type story, it's really an imagined dialog between a persona representing the author, a monk, and various heavenly and deceased personages. Think of CS Lewis' Pilgrim's Regress or his story about a bus trip to hell and heaven ... I don't recall the title. Similar as well are some of Peter Kreeft's books. Alas I don't really get into this kind of thing ordinarily. And I positively dislike the author's dialog with "Jack" - C.S. Lewis himself who appears in one of the dialogs. I love C.S. Lewis, but this author tries basically to claim him for Evangelical Protestantism, and puts words in his mouth that are really simply not representative of Lewis at all. Room of Marvels is in fact very Protestant. I can definitely see how this might be a good book for many, it just doesn't appeal to me either as a Catholic or as a Lewis-fan or as a grieving man.

Wayne Simsic's Praying Through Our Losses is published by The Word Among Us Press, ordinarily a very reliable Catholic Charismatic publishing house, but I haven't read too far in it yet, so I think I'll defer any other thoughts on this till later.

Charles Delacroix
Feast of St Wenceslaus