January 15, 2010
In a 60 & Single posting last year I shared thoughts about Joan Didion's memoir,"The Year of Magical Thinking," in which she documented the sudden death of her husband of many years and its aftermath. Now, author Joyce Carol Oates has written a book that sounds equally engrossing on the same topic, loss of a mate. Oates, 71, lost her husband in February 2008, grieved the loss, fell in love and has remarried, according to a profile in today's Wall Street Journal. She's recently finished, "A Widow's Memoir," a book the Wall Street Journal describes as "practical and darkly funny." Oates turned to her writing as a life line after her husband's death, which maybe is no surprise since she's written more than 50 books. Her writing was "the only thing that got her out of bed," Oates told the WSJ. Those struggling with the loss of a spouse from death or divorce, may find comfort in Oates' memoir where she addresses the death and an unexpected new romance and marriage last spring to a neuroscientist. To read a WSJ Q&A with Oates click here Until now I've found Oates' work to be too dense and introspective, but I'm going to give her memoir a try because it sounds as if the death of her husband, while traumatic and difficult has opened her to a new sense of adventure and excitement. Many of us need to see others breaking that trail.
