Brooks is one of my favorite authors, and this will certainly be one of my top reads of the year. It’s a memoir about love and grief, written in Brooks’ insightful prose. Though it’s very different from her novels, I enjoyed it just as much.
On Memorial Day, 2019, Brooks received a call in her Cape Cod home. She was informed by a hospital doctor that her husband of many years had collapsed on a sidewalk and died. Tony Horwitz, like Brooks, was a writer, and he was finishing up a book tour in Washington, DC. He was walking just a few blocks from the house where he was staying when his heart gave out. Horwitz and Brooks thought they had many years ahead of them, with one of their two sons still in high school.
Brooks describes her shock and devastation at the sudden loss, and then she describes all the things she had to do: travel to DC, talk to physicians and the coroner, deal with funeral arrangements, his will, and his remains. Half of the book is set three years later, in 2022, when she finally feels she has time to grieve. She explores different cultural beliefs about grief, including Jewish practices and native Australian. She writes about what it means to open yourself up to grief. She goes to Flinders Island, where she retreats, finding meaning in solitude and in beautiful surroundings.
I haven’t been through what Brooks experiences, thankfully, although her writing about grief certainly resonated with me as I lost my dad in 2024. Also, I have two friends (we’re all in our 50’s) who suddenly lost their husbands. I’m devastated for them, and I’m conscious that I can’t take a day with Mr. CG for granted.
Brooks writes quite a bit about the practical side of widowhood, and she doesn’t hold back on her criticism of the U.S. medical system, with good reason. For example, she finds out months after Horwitz’ death that she and her two sons have lost their health insurance – despite the fact that she just paid an expensive premium. She also finds herself at a loss when dealing with their finances, as Horwitz handled most of that. Like me and Mr. CG, they divided up tasks in their marriage but mostly kept those tasks to themselves. She advises readers to keep a running record of things your spouse would need to know if you were gone. Good advice.
This is a short but powerful read. Brooks’ grief comes through even when she’s being practical. She’s not an emotional writer so I didn’t find this a sob-out-loud kind of book. Rather, it’s thoughtful and heartfelt. I also appreciated learning so much more about Brooks, from her childhood in Australia to her travels around the world as a reporter, before she became a successful novelist. Readers who loved the book Horse, as I did, will have a much greater appreciation for that book, as it’s amazing she was able to write it at all.
It’s hard to write about a book like this, given the subject matter, and I don’t feel I’m doing it justice. But I highly recommend it.
