Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Grief
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Grief
Moderate: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Car accident
Minor: Alcoholism, Drug use, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders
This rambling novel (which fits with the experience of grief) has the most bizarre, disconnected ending -- at least to this reader. It ruined it for me. I admit.
It was a slow read as grief is slow.
What I find most interesting is that he doesn't tell us how his wife died until the very end. For most it's the very place you start.
It was a slow read as grief is slow.
What I find most interesting is that he doesn't tell us how his wife died until the very end. For most it's the very place you start.
I almost abandoned this book a few times but in the end I am glad I persevered. Stronger second half, some very moving writing.
At first I was mesmerized by this book. Absolutely drawn in. Somewhere around halfway through it started dragging for me - feeling repetitious. Like he was just babbling on and on about the same stuff from different angles.
Heartbreaking. What was fascinating about this study of loss was how closely Frank's experience in mourning mirrors Joan Didion's in "The Year of Magical Thinking" -- they even read the same Freud text on grief, and both conclude that there is no place in our society for the mourner, that the community is no place for grief.
But unlike Joan's work, "Say Her Name" is raw, staccato, sometimes cruel in its nakedness, equal parts ugly and beautiful in its experience of pain. It is also repetitive, though each repetition is slightly different, as if the parsing-out of events leading up to The Event has become a kind of catechism. I drank every word, saw Aura vividly in life. When the end finally arrives, I feel the wave that takes her and sense the abject despair that comes with knowing this cannot be undone.
But unlike Joan's work, "Say Her Name" is raw, staccato, sometimes cruel in its nakedness, equal parts ugly and beautiful in its experience of pain. It is also repetitive, though each repetition is slightly different, as if the parsing-out of events leading up to The Event has become a kind of catechism. I drank every word, saw Aura vividly in life. When the end finally arrives, I feel the wave that takes her and sense the abject despair that comes with knowing this cannot be undone.
amazing, heartbreaking, an incredible love story. what would you do if the person you loved most in the world was suddenly gone? what would you remember? his smile? her laugh? the things he did that drove you crazy? would you remember the mundane moments of your life together, or only the extraordinary ones? goldman seems to remember it all, and walks back through his life with aura in his good-bye letter to her. if you've ever loved anyone, you must read this book!
.jpg)
Elegy, love letter, howl, tribute, Francisco Goldman's "Say Her Name" resurrects Aura, the author's late wife, and makes the reader fall in love with her, too. Not content to keep the book as a paean to love and an honest examination of grief, though, Goldman also delves into responsibilities within a marriage and its extended relationships, the possibility of destiny, and the simultaneous cruelty and beauty of nature's indifference. At first, I was puzzled by Goldman's choice to publish this as fiction, and thought it perhaps a practical choice (in our litigious society) to keep further lawyers at bay. (His in-laws hold him responsible for Aura's death, which he examines with great compassion.) But as I read, a more heartbreaking realization came to me -- this book is a work of fiction because Goldman wants it to be; he still cannot believe that this story is true. Likewise, when Aura's much-foretold death finally arrives in the narrative, the all-knowing reader is similarly shocked and saddened, and intimately understands Goldman's loss. The purpose of this fiction, therefore, keeps her alive, if only within these pages, and with it Goldman has created a moving, vulnerable, unforgettable testament to a life and love that endures.
Well written with a bending sense of time that suits a story of grief. Goldman is somewhat self indulgent, but a wonderful portrait does emerge. He captures love and grief beautifully. i want Aura to come back almost as much as Francisco. If nothing else, I want to read what she would have written. Her perspective as a Mexican American intrigues me.
I can't imagine being loved so much by a person to bring a book like this to fruition, but it was a beautiful experience. Goldman's writing flowed to and from his late wife's writing, until it became clear that they were, and continue to be, entwined.