Book: Good Grief

published: april 2005 (paperback)



i read this book at least a year after it was published. i happened to have an advanced readers copy lying around my apartment and grabbed it one day at random. it's pretty much chick lit, although deeper than average chick lit, definately. not really my usual thing, but it kept me reading, so that's a good sign. fiction in general doesn't always keep me reading.

the first part of the book was the best, in my opinion. the lead character loses her husband and goes into a downward spiral that lands her into a perminant pajama mode (hence the book cover). she depiction of her fall into depression is almost scary becuase i could totally picture myself or someone i know going to that place if something that terrible happened. it was very a clear and heavy desciption, despite wry humor tossed it. the best way i can describe how it got to me: as i was sitting on my bed reading this, i a couple times had to break it up into groups of a couple pages in order to get through it, and it made me miss mark. it made me lonely.

now, not that the rest of the book is bad. it's just less poignant. the lead character is a young-ish woman who is spunky (once she gets out of her pj's) and gets herself into all sorts of scrapes and picks up a teenager to mentor who keeps her on her toes. the second half of the books continues the wry humor and has also a nice first-person tone...you can picture a person actually thinking these things.

i will say that the ending seems a bit too perfect, but i suppose not entirely unlikely. it manages to not be entirely cheesy.

all in all i liked it enough to make it a staff pick for the store, both because the first part of the book affected me so much, but also because it's the kind of thing that sells well as a staff pick, i'll admit it.