Two Books about Loss: "Seeing Ghosts," by Kat Chow, and "A Quiet Life," by Ethan Joella

Books about loss are often difficult to read, especially if one has recently lost a loved one, but are also sometimes comforting. “Seeing Ghosts” (Grand Central Publishing, 2021), by Kat Chow, is a memoir that focuses on the effects on the author of her mother’s death, as well as of all the deaths in the family’s history. The book is about family, history, trauma, and love; it is beautifully written and very evocative. Ethan Joella’s novel “A Quiet Life” (Scribner, 2022) tells the interwoven stories of three characters who have each had serious losses of someone close to them. Each character is vivid and relatable. When their paths cross in various ways, the three find ways to help each other. This is a sad but also hopeful novel, gentle and life-affirming.

Five Memoirs by Dani Shapiro

In my most recent post (2/2/23), I wrote with great admiration of Dani Shapiro’s newest novel, “Signal Fires.” Shapiro is known as both a novelist and a memoirist, and her memoirs are as wonderful as her novels. Today I write of her five memoirs, all of which I have recently read. “Slow Motion: A Memoir of a Life Rescued by Tragedy” (HarperCollins, 1998) is about her difficult and somewhat self-destructive youth. (I posted here on 8/14/11 about Shapiro’s article in which, many years after publishing this book, she struggles with the possibility that her now teenaged son will read it, and ponders the decisions that memoirists have to make when considering others in their lives.) Shapiro’s second memoir is “Devotion” (HarperCollins, 2010), in which she writes of her search for spiritual meaning in her life. Third to be published is “Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life” (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2013), which is a combination of memoir and advice about writing. Fourth, “Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage” (Knopf, 2017), about which I posted here on 9/7/17 (I read it back then, and re-read it this year), is a candid look at her own loving but complicated marriage (and which marriage is not complicated?). Finally (so far!), “Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love” (Knopf, 2019) tells of a shocking and traumatic discovery the author makes about her own history, causing her to reconsider much of her life. Each of these memoirs is thoughtful, revealing, and beautifully written. Each addresses a different time period and/or focus in the author's life, and read together, they form a compelling whole. I hope Shapiro will continue to write memoirs, and I for one will read them all.

"Signal Fires," by Dani Shapiro

This post will be short and to the point. Dani Shapiro’s newest novel, “Signal Fires” (Knopf, 2022), is brilliant, gripping, and beautifully written. It makes readers reflect on family, memory, history, gender, youth and age, secrets, and the subconscious. But it is not only “about” these themes. It is mysterious, suspenseful, haunting, yet completely realistic. It makes the reader care about the characters. It reminds readers of events and people in their lives. You will not find more compelling characters than Dr. Wilf and the young boy Waldo. And yes, the plot draws readers in, but I don't want to spoil it by telling you too much about it, and the novel is so much more than its plot, with its mystery, pain, and transcendence.