Epilogue: A Memoir

This book nearly knocked me down with its brutal honesty, with its bravery. But the stunning sadness of its subject will make it a hard sell. I'm not sure who will want to read at such length of grief. Anne Roiphe is a strong woman, of course. I knew her work only form a couple of her earliest novels: UP THE SANDBOX and LONG DIVISION. Both were early novels of feminism. So I was quite unprepared for this utterly human story of love and loss. There are a few moments here that are funny - her attempts at trying to get back into the dating scene, for example. But even those are ultimatley rather sad. I wonder if some people might lower their rating of a book like this simply because of its subject. Well, I won't be one of them. Because show more this is a powerful and beautifully written study of grief following the loss of one's soulmate and spouse. Roiphe is, I think, still trying to cope, to get out from under her grief. But I wonder. Does one ever "get over" something like this? This is five-star quality writing, despite the sadness of its topic. But I will be careful about whom I recommend it to. The emotions expressed here; the buttons it might push are too powerful and raw. I will not soon forget Epilogue. show less

A raw and painful book of loss and grief. Roiphe is so honest, so brutal, so courageous in sharing with the reader the depth of her sorrow.

The lost, disjointed emptiness that follows the loss of a lifetime love is so well-expressed I felt myself nodding in agreement over and over. It was so interesting to read about her progress through the dark tunnel of pain, experiencing so much that I experienced but describing it so much better than I ever could.

I enjoyed her forays into dating, in response to a personal ad placed by her daughters. They were amusing and sad and infuriating and comforting. Men suffer in their losses too - an obvious concept that I somehow hadn't thought of before.

This book is hard to read at times, but if you've show more been there, you will find comfort and an easing of your loneliness. show less

Anne Roiphe had been married to H for 39 years when he died, suddenly, of a heart attack. The author, in her 60’s, expects to live many more years. But how, after 39 years of marriage, do you start to build a life without your beloved husband? Anne picks up where Joan Didion in “Year of Magical Thinking” left off. “Epilogue” explores how she began to rejoin the living, even when she didn’t want to.

Her daughters, convinced she needs another husband, put a personal ad in the New York Times Book Review seeking a mate for her. Her subsequent adventures in dating are sometimes hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking, but always honest. In the end, Anne discovers that a new man may not be what she needs at all.

I thought this was an show more absolutely groundbreaking book! Many women are widowed at a time when they can expect to live many years beyond their spouse. Anne gives us a glimpse of what life is like for these women and the unique emotional and practical issues they face. I appreciated her dedication to honesty, even when it showed her in a less then favorable light. Many of her dating stories provided much needed comic relief. In the end, this is a story of a woman who learns that she is stronger then she ever knew.

I listened to the audio version of this book and Lorna Raver’s narration fits the memoir perfectly. I especially loved her querulous response to friends her tell her to dye her hair “I don’t want to.” Unless, of course, she can dye it purple! show less

Very powerful book. I appreciate Anne Roiphe's honesty and candor in describing her loneliness and the painful search to stay connected to life after the loss of her husband. It reminded me somewhat of Ann Hood's "Comfort" written after the sudden death of her 5 year old daughter. Both writers were willing to bare their pain and both eventually walked through it. Not a subject we want to embrace, but it is life, and reading such memoirs as this ends up being a reaffirmation of life and in a strange way, uplifting.

Anne is not quite 70 when her husband of 40 yrs dies. This is a memoir about the next 18 months or so. I really enjoyed her writing skill. Descriptions of emotions and sense of places were beautiful.

I abandoned this one without really reading it. It might be the greatest memoir ever written in the history of the world but I'll never know.

It is a massive personal pet peeve of mine when authors remove names from their memoirs. Change them? By all means, go ahead! But when the book is nothing but a series of:

K said this to H and H said "aww hell no bee-otch" and L and B got into a fight over who could eat the most amount of raw bacon in under 30 seconds.

It drives me insane - just give them a new name! At least it's a little better than the authors who do the dreaded "T---- went to B--- L---- Elementary on G--- Rd in Wa-------".

Maybe. I don't know which one is worse but it definitely makes me less inclined to finish a book.

Beautiful writing. She has an amazing ability to transform raw emotion and grief into literature (unlike Joan Didion's book, which seemed more like therapy through writing than literature). Her dates were a bit off-putting, though.