Brigitte Giraud

This is an elegant treatment of how one copes with grief. In her short novel, Giraud covers the gamut from the shock, magical thinking, blame, denial, acceptance, and nostalgia. She frames her narrative in a series of chapters that focus on events that could have changed the disasterous outcome if they had just not occurred or occurred in slightly different ways. Her protagonist is an intelligent narrator who evokes empathy without necessarily appearing too dour. Along the way, she show more introduces the reader to a marital relationship, which is not perfect, but realistic. Giraud provides a pitch-perfect obituary with the portrait of a likeable husband and father, who overcomes a modest imigrant background while persuing intense interests in music (especially rock) and motorcycles. show less

very captivating description of author losing husband in motorcycle accident. she looks back to try to see what could have been different at the time and saved him. they both cared so much for each other and for their son, but she eventually was able to love another. not as maudlin as it could have been--more matter of fact. translated from french. auto-fiction

Simple and easy to enjoy

Telle une Pénélope qui garderait l'espoir de voir revenir Ulysse de son ultime voyage, Brigitte Giraud découd la journée fatidique de son départ. A l'aide de "Si", elle reconstruit un scénario dont l'issue aurait pu être autre, en vain. Un exercice que l'on a certainement tous effectué pour trouver la force d'affronter le drame, l'injustice ou la cruauté du destin. Un réflexe de défense thérapeutique peut-être, mais qui à l'opposé peut nous mener aux portes de la folie.

Sous show more la forme d'un haïku :

Au conditionnel,
Mes jours ponctués de si,
C'est ma vie sans toi. show less