The Long Goodbye
A Memoir
A poet's memoir of losing her mother to cancer, and of how little modern life offers the bereaved in the way of shared mourning.
Meghan O’Rourke’s mother died of cancer when O’Rourke was in her early thirties, and this 2011 memoir follows the illness, the death and the long aftermath. Alongside her own grief she draws on literature, psychology and the history of mourning to ask why contemporary culture leaves the bereaved so alone with loss. Written by a poet with a close eye for detail, it was published to wide critical acclaim.
As an Amazon Associate, bookstoread.org earns from qualifying purchases. Links to Amazon on this page may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Spotted an error on this page? Tell us and we will fix it.