How do you think grief is portrayed in The Forgotten Book Club?
I thinkn everyone grieves differently. Some peoeple want to be alone, others in a crowd to keep thougths away. grace kept to herself and didn’t even share her grief with her daughter and her family. She reacted as if she was the only one who lost Frank. She was surprised to realize his book club friends felt sadness over his death. I did jsut find it a little hard to think the book club people didn’t go to his funeral, didn’t reach out to Grace . This Silent Club was pretty private!
I think The Forgotten Book Club acknowledged that grief is felt differently by different people. I find this to be true and appreciated it in the book.
I like the discussion Annie and Grace had about the silence in grief when Grace said “It’s like the silence opens the door for the grief. It fills the space if you know what I mean.” The silence experienced in those minutes, hours and days when no one else is in the home are deafening and feel never ending.
The book acknowledged the scope and continuum of grief and allowed each person to share their grief as they felt comfortable. It also touched on different reasons for grief: the grief related to someone dying, but also the type of grief experienced when something happens to alter the trajectory of the life we thought we’d live. Annie grieved the life she lost with her husband when he got so depressed that he could not function. She was so compassionate, but at the same time went through a lot of denial and then some internal conflict (anger?) when she learned he was not paying bills.
I think grief is the sadness we feel when we experience great loss. This can be loss of someone close to us or loss of a dream or vision we held. Grace feels several losses—not just her partner but also loss of the way of life that she had before his death. As she learns more about her husband from his diary entries, she feels different emotions including anger and a sense of betrayal. Joining the book club ultimately enables her to move forward and be more proactive in her own life.
I think Grace began to realize that she wasn’t the only one grieving in the group. Some were grieving from something that happened in the past and some in the present, not necessarily because of a death. Everyone grieves differently and at some point they all accepted each other and were not judgmental, which is how it should be.
Great observation, Dorothy.
I think the author portrayed grief with compassion and understanding. While we all experience grief at some times in our lives, through the story line, the author showed how people grieve differently and how it can ultimately strengthen us.
Grief is different for everyone. In this book, Grace withdraws into depression and isolation. it is only when she ventures into her late husband’s writing that is able to deal with his loss, see herself as a whole person without him and come into her own.
I think the author treated with compassion and demonstrated through her characters some of the many facets of grieving. For example, the main character Grace dealt with the loss of her husband by closing his study door for a year and not having much interaction with the outside world other than her immediate family while Annie and Lee handled their grief differently. The author showed that no matter the reason for grieving, a good remedies are friends and community,
Grief is felt differently by different people. The author’s descriptions of Grace’s grief were very well done and very spot on.
Totally agree with Liz
Grief can be so overwhelming that it seems to be all there is. Being human, we seldom stay debilitated, but the awfulness of real grief is astonishing. The silent book club is a tremendous place for those beginning to recover some from the initial shock. It’s a place where people can put aside everything because the others there have similar situations.
So yes, I think grief was well and realistically presented.