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A review by clovemorris
The Futilitarians: Our Year of Thinking, Drinking, Grieving, and Reading by Anne Gisleson
5.0
It's interesting reading peoples' reviews of this book as a memoir or philosophical treatise on Existentialism... I picked up this book at the library after a keyword search of "Grief" after losing my father and it has been a truly wonderful companion and a beautiful reckoning with grief.
As she honors all kinds of loss and trauma, the book examines the paradigm of endings giving way to beginnings, death to life. She artfully avoids offering answers while still providing poignant insights, ending with the value of "the search" of the individual, pursued as part of a community.
I will say that the marketing on the book is confusing though--there seems to be an unclear expectation of exactly what genre this is intended to for, and even the title is a misnomer as it's HER journey, not the group's.
Regardless, I've recommended this to many people in my life experiencing loss and anticipate making a project of rereading it in correlation with the listed ECRG readings. If Gisleson comes out with any more books, I'd pick them up.
Mostly though, I just want to meet her mom.
Reread January 2022. It's still just as good.
As she honors all kinds of loss and trauma, the book examines the paradigm of endings giving way to beginnings, death to life. She artfully avoids offering answers while still providing poignant insights, ending with the value of "the search" of the individual, pursued as part of a community.
I will say that the marketing on the book is confusing though--there seems to be an unclear expectation of exactly what genre this is intended to for, and even the title is a misnomer as it's HER journey, not the group's.
Regardless, I've recommended this to many people in my life experiencing loss and anticipate making a project of rereading it in correlation with the listed ECRG readings. If Gisleson comes out with any more books, I'd pick them up.
Mostly though, I just want to meet her mom.
Reread January 2022. It's still just as good.