The Rules of Inheritance is Claire Bidwell Smith's journey through grief. This book could have not arrived at a better time for me as the first anniversary of my mother's passing away is just two months away. At times the book's rawness was too much for me and I had to put it down, but then I would pick it up again and devour several chapters at a time staying up past my bedtime. She is honest and does not hide her feelings. Anyone that knows anything about grieving will tell you sometimes the feelings are downright scary. There are two moments in this book when I can relate to the extent that I feel like she is telling my story.
At the end of Chapter 7 Bridwell has a realization that took my breath away. She says "Nothing is every going to bring either one of them back" (pg. 161) As I put the book down I asked myself why this one line had made me so sad and I realized minutes later that it was because I hadn't come to that conclusion yet in my own grief process.
My biggest fear is something that Bridwell realizes during a therapy session. It's that everything will stop. She notices that she stopped doing a lot of things and I know that for one I have lost some of my crafty mojo since last May. It takes an immense amount of energy to just do something when I have a constant dull pain inside of me. I could have written this line “It was like, without my mother, I couldn’t possible go on” (pg. 250).
I will recommend this book to anyone that is grieving or has at some point in their lives. Nothing makes one feel better than knowing that they are not alone. It’s nice to have ones feelings validated and that’s what I feel this book did for me. I have a long way to go in my grieving process but I think this book helped me take two steps forward. And for that I will always be thankful Claire. Thank you from the bottom of my broken heart.
This was a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.
1 comment:
I thought it was a greaf read as well! Nicely done
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