SOCIAL SCIENCES

The Widower's Notebook

by Jonathan Santlofer
Penguin Pr. Jul. 2018. 260p. ISBN 9780143132493. pap. $17; ebk. ISBN 9780525504443. MEMOIR
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Crime novelist and artist Santlofer (It Occurs to Me I Am America) turns his attention inward in this account of the years following the sudden death of his beloved wife, food writer Joy Santlofer. Mired in a profound fog of grief, Santlofer sleepwalked through the early days and then gradually slipped into a life without Joy, while managing never to confront essential truths about her death and its effects on the whole Santlofer family. Delayed realizations about the nature of sorrow and the puzzling circumstances of Joy's death ultimately enable the author to process the hideous experience in a way that allows him to move forward, however slowly and sadly. Santlofer's memoir of life after the unexpected death of a treasured spouse is told from a widower's point of view: one, he asserts, that is not often reported.
VERDICT Santlofer's voice might provide comfort or insight to those in similar circumstances, while his sketches of family—drawn from memories and snapshots of happier days—supply an affecting view of the depths of his mourning, which he was once unable to articulate. [See Prepub Alert, 1/22/18.]
Reviewed by Therese Purcell Nielsen, Huntington P.L., NY , Apr 15, 2018
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