“Heartbreaking. What was fascinating about this study of loss was how closely Frank's experience in mourning mirrors Joan Didion's in "The Year of Magical Thinking" -- they even read the same Freud text on grief, and both conclude that there is no place in our society for the mourner; the community is no place for grief.
But unlike Joan's work, "Say Her Name" is raw, staccato, sometimes cruel in its nakedness, equal parts ugly and beautiful in its experience of pain. It is also repetitive, though each repetition is slightly different, as if the parsing-out of events leading up to The Event has become a kind of catechism. I drank every word, saw Aura vividly in life. When the end finally arrives, I feel the wave that takes her and sense the abject despair that comes with knowing this cannot be undone.”
Angela N wrote this review Tuesday, January 29, 2013.
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