Author: Anne Edelstein
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Red Hen Press
Publish Date: November 7, 2018
Source: TLC Book Tours
What's the Story?:
From Goodreads.com: "When Anne Edelstein was forty-two, her mother, a capable swimmer in good health, drowned while snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. Caring for two small children of her own, Anne suddenly found herself grieving not only for her emotionally distant mother but also for her beloved younger brother Danny, who had killed himself violently over a decade before. She finds herself wrestling not only with the past and her family's legacy of mental illness, but also with the emotional well-being of her children. Part memoir and part meditation on joy and grief, the book will resonate with anyone who has ever struggled to come to terms with their parents, their siblings, their children, and their place in the world."
My Two Cents:
In "Lifesaving for Beginners," Anne Edelstein loses her mother, a difficult thing for anyone but what happens when your relationship has always been hot and cold with the person who dies. What if you are, as someone in this book puts it, mismatched? How do you rectify your feelings while guarding your heart? This book explores the author's road to peace and closure, two things which can be very difficult to find!
When her mother dies for unclear reasons on what is almost like a second honeymoon for her parents, Anne isn't sure how to cope. She is flooded with thoughts of other deaths she has felt the loss of like her brother and her uncle. Although her mother's death had a different cause, old wounds are still reopened throughout the book.
This book is a slow rumination on the pain of loss even of someone who caused a lot of pain. As this book shows, death is hard to cope with no matter how it comes. The pacing of the book sometimes did not work for me but there are some really beautiful descriptions and insights that kept me going.
