I am reading this because I thought it would help me deal with impending “empty nest”-my daughters will be going to college in a year. Anyhoo, the book is fascinating but I have to say that the way that it assisted with putting the empty nest issue into perspective was to scare the crap out of me for the next phases of life after the empty nest- Sickness, aging and DEATH.

In my line of work, I am surrounded by pending death. I work in a nursing home as a social worker and while people often assume it must be so depressing, it actually is a very rewarding and lesson-filled atmosphere. What I have really been learning most recently is how the experience of loss is so much more than when a loved one dies. This book encompasses a spectrum of losses that occur throughout the life span. It helped to point out to me areas of loss in my own life I have not successfully moved beyond yet and how this impacts who I am today. A very enlightening read.

I found this on the street in Brooklyn a few years ago and thought it was about bereavement. It’s not. It’s about losses of all kinds, from Oedipal triangles to death.

I enjoyed it, though parts seem dated (it was written in the Reagan era.) Viorst’s women are long-suffering, passive creatures, who put up with disregard and infidelity from their men. I wonder what she makes of my generation, where the women keep demanding more than the baffled, gentle sons of feminism can give?