Rosenblatt’s daughter Amy dies unexpectedly from a heart attack at age 40 leaving behind a husband, successful career, and three young children. Roger Rosenblatt and his wife Ginny move from grandparenting into their dead daughter’s house, living now with her widower, to take up the role of parenting. Rosenblatt is a well published author who uses this long essay to expunge his emotions. Nothing can be worse than losing a child, but while the writing is exquisitely painful, it also feels self-indulgent and hagiographic. In memory, Amy emerges as perfect. Her friends and her father’s friends are all dreadfully famous. Amy, the author, and the other characters peopling the book all seem out of reach to us mortals making this universal tragedy a little less universal.
Aug 292010
