LitPicks Book Reviews—September 2012

Theme—The Ways of Grief Grief—the most painful and universal of emotions. No one can live untouched by it, yet all experience it in profoundly different ways. Two recent novels and Shakespere's greatest drama explore how those left behind cope with loss.

The After Wife
Gigi Levangie Grazer, 2012
298 pp.

Book Review by Molly Lundquist
September, 2012
There's obviously nothing funny about death, especially one unexpected, a life cut suddenly and cruelly short.

Yet, as in all her books, Gigi Levangie Grazer manages to rouse us to bursts of stifled laughter and embarrassed guffaws. Even in grief, Grazer has created a heroine-narrator who speaks with a dark but very funny, sardonic voice.

The World Without You
Joshua Henkin
336 pp.

Book Review by Molly Lundquist
September 2012
Joshua Henkin writes novels with such stunning realism that his characters fairly jump off the page and lodge themselves in your consciousness. They're rich, complex, and remain with you long after you've closed the cover.

In The World Without You the author has created a family whose members, each in their peculiar way, remember and grieve for one of their own. This is a beautiful, poignant, and at times even funny read.

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
William Shakespeare, 1603 (First Quarto)
~150-160 pp. (varies by publisher)

Book Review by Molly Lundquist
September 2012
Hamlet is a difficult read, no getting around it. Yet it's the most thrilling drama in all of Shakespeare—some believe in all of literature. It is the story of a prince robbed of a father and of his rightful seat on the throne of Denmark.

Love, revenge, betrayal, intrigue at home and abroad—and the most brilliantly complex character in all of literature—comprise the story. Add some of the most dazzling language ever written...and there you have Shakespeare's Hamlet.