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Good Grief
Some widows face their loss with denial. Sophie Stanton's reaction is one of pure bafflement. "How can I be a widow?" Sophie asks at the opening of Lolly Winston's sweet debut novel, Good Grief. "I'm only thirty-six. I just got used to the idea of being married." Sophie's young widowhood forces her to do all kinds of crazy things--drive her car through her garage door, for...more
Hardcover, 344 pages
Published
July 1st 2009
by Warner Books
(first published November 30th 2004)
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Aug 19, 2007
Candice
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Candice by:
Mellissa
I read this about a month after my husband died, and I remember thinking at the time how amazing it was that someone absolutely GOT so many of the crazy things that were going through my head. Some of the descriptions of grief and the crazy things you think, feel, and do are absolutely spot on...but after about halfway through the book it just traipses off into la-la, fantasy land. At 2 years now after my husband died, and having met a great number of young widows in those two years, it's absolu...more
This was a fun summer read. I would recommend it only if you've got a lot of time to read because you are not going to want to put it down. It's an endearing story of a woman who is dealing with (or not dealing with) the death of her husband by eating her way through the local supermarket, wearing her slippers to work, and other very funny, yet poignant, examples of how one woman handles this incredible loss and change in her life. I warn you: You will be surprised at how much you laugh with thi...more
I loved this book! At first, I wasn't sure if I should even buy it because of the expected start of the protagonist dying...as if some karmic cycle would point that fate into my pathe. But because of the topic of grief, I thought to give it a try.
Yes, yes, and yes. I totally related to this story...the phases of grief and loss...what a person does and doesn't do can be actually extremely hilarious.
I LOL, I cried, I shouted, I rooted and cheared, I became involved with these characters as if they...more
Yes, yes, and yes. I totally related to this story...the phases of grief and loss...what a person does and doesn't do can be actually extremely hilarious.
I LOL, I cried, I shouted, I rooted and cheared, I became involved with these characters as if they...more
Good Grief was on a bookshelf at my job last winter and I picked it up, read the first few chapters, and loved it. It chronicles Sophie's mental breakdown after she loses her husband to a cancer. Sounds very Lifetime-movie-of-the-week, I admit, but Winston managed to write something serious and make it tender and funny at the same time. I was bummed when the book went missing and kept forgetting to buy my own copy.
I finally read it and I was disappointed. Really disappointed, actually. When Soph...more
I finally read it and I was disappointed. Really disappointed, actually. When Soph...more
4 likes · like · see review
a very easy, entertaining read. hahaha i'm ashamed to say that it's kinda "chick lit" but i was interested in the story which is about a woman who overcomes the grief of the loss of her husband. a young wife, i think they were married a year or two, her life completely breaks down, but after moving and pursuing a new career, she slowly finds new meaning and people for her life. i liked the people she met, some cheesy, some real, but all reveal the depth and beauty of human relationships.
i would...more
i would...more
I picked up this paperback not expecting too much more than some light fluff for my vacation. I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be such a good story.
It is about a woman recently widowed and how she copes with her grief and rebuilds her life. I thought the author did a good job showing her grief and how there is humour in the sadness. This author is really funny but real and I enjoyed the story despite the sad subject. I plan on sharing it with a friend who lost her husband at a yo...more
It is about a woman recently widowed and how she copes with her grief and rebuilds her life. I thought the author did a good job showing her grief and how there is humour in the sadness. This author is really funny but real and I enjoyed the story despite the sad subject. I plan on sharing it with a friend who lost her husband at a yo...more
You know that time when you're too young to know better about books? Yes? Well, that happened to me when I was thirteen and my literary tastes had not yet fomented themselves. Mind you, I was already a huge Harry Potter fan. However, my opinionated parents encouraged me to try different types of books. And along came my good-humored neighbor and told my mother to read this book. It was like her salvation. My mother then tossed the book to me and said I should give it a try.
So, I started reading...more
So, I started reading...more
I would have given this book only 3 stars if it hadn't made me laugh so much and right out loud. That alone brings it up a star in my opinion.
This is a fun easy read about a woman who had lost her hustand to cancer and follows her through the first 18 months after his death. You get to go through her grief process with her. The story is told with so much insight and humor that you fall in love with Sopie the widow. In her own words, she desperately wants to be a good widow - graceful, composed...more
This is a fun easy read about a woman who had lost her hustand to cancer and follows her through the first 18 months after his death. You get to go through her grief process with her. The story is told with so much insight and humor that you fall in love with Sopie the widow. In her own words, she desperately wants to be a good widow - graceful, composed...more
Read this one on audiobook, and found it totally charming. I chose it mainly because it was one of the few audiobooks in the sorry rural Arkansas library collection that I hadn't read, and my expectations were low. The evil librarian said, "That's a good book." when I checked it out. (I used to really hate people commenting on my book, video or grocery choices after I moved to Arkansas, but it's a fact of life here, and I've gotten used to it--although I still hate it when it comes from the evil...more
3 likes · like · see review
This is a funny and heartwarming book about a young woman's fight to build a new life after the death of her husband. Sophie Stanton is in her mid thirties and loses her young husband to cancer. In an age where women are expected to be high-achievers, Sophie desperately wants to be a good widow but things don't turn out that way as she is not the sterotypical type. Instead she puts away gallons of ice-cream and has major breakdowns which in turn cause her to lose her job, to say the least. Once...more
In Good Grief, Lolly Winston deftly manages to weave her way through a year of grief for her character Sophie Stanton without leaving the reader depressed. For anyone who has suffered depression, alone and far from family, the story will resonate painfully. I found myself sobbing without any warning as I read the scene in which Sophie returns to work after her first Thanksgiving as a widow wearing her bathrobe and slippers. I should have anticipated that the story wouldn't find Sophie on the str...more
I don't typically read what some people think of as 'chick-lit,' and it would be all too easy to dismiss this book as just that. However, 'Good Grief' is a very entertaining piece of literary fiction peopled with characters to both love and hate.
The story centers on a young widow, Sophie, who has a full-on nervous breakdown and loses her job as a Silicon Valley ad executive. She decides to sell everything and move to Ashland, Oregon, where she will stay with her college roommate for a while. Eve...more
The story centers on a young widow, Sophie, who has a full-on nervous breakdown and loses her job as a Silicon Valley ad executive. She decides to sell everything and move to Ashland, Oregon, where she will stay with her college roommate for a while. Eve...more
I found this book both touching and funny. The character in the book takes us along with her through the grief process after she loses her husband to cancer at 36. Another reader's review suggested that this story is the author's idea of a happy ending for a widow. I would have to agree to some extent, but to me it was as if Sophie acted out what many only imagine doing. You might think about staying in your bathrobe for weeks and breaking things if you lost a loved one, but more likely you woul...more
Jul 22, 2010
Claire (Just Another Bookworm) Denman
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
After just reading "If I Stay", I was a bit worried that this book would also be very emotional, I am glad to say it was very light reading. Don't get me wrong, in places it was sad but there was a lot of laughter to balance the book out.
main character is Sophie, she has just lost her husband to cancer, and is struggling to deal with her grief, and is just trying to get through the day. At first her marketing job starts to go downhill, then she starts breaking down in the supermarket, Sophie the...more
main character is Sophie, she has just lost her husband to cancer, and is struggling to deal with her grief, and is just trying to get through the day. At first her marketing job starts to go downhill, then she starts breaking down in the supermarket, Sophie the...more
I loved this book. I don't know why - maybe it's because I related to the depression, even tho her's was grief related and mine just is. I laughed out loud at parts. I loved the characters. I loved watching them stretch and grow and work through the tough stuff. I had already read this book twice when someone in my book group chose it and the group pretty much didn't like the book, which was 'upsetting' to me. One argument was about some of the moral values in the book - hunh. The group doesn't...more
I picked this book up years ago for a dollar and I'm not sure why. I think I just liked the title. I know I hated the cover graphic of a pair of bunny slippers. I didn't expect much from it, it seemed like 'chick lit does widowhood.' But I'm so glad I read it because it was just wonderful.
Sophie Stanton is a 36 year old woman who is widowed after 3 years of marriage. She completely falls apart and the story of her coming apart and subsequent healing is beautifully told. One thing that I loved ab...more
Sophie Stanton is a 36 year old woman who is widowed after 3 years of marriage. She completely falls apart and the story of her coming apart and subsequent healing is beautifully told. One thing that I loved ab...more
Aug 28, 2011
Sara
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Sara by:
Sandie
Shelves:
2011,
adult-fiction
A friend recommended this book to me, and it was a worthwhile read. It covers the span of about a year and a half, beginning two months after Sophie's husband dies. She's not quite sure how to deal with it, so she quits her job, packs up her house, and moves north to live near her best friend from college in Ashland, OR. There, she starts to put her life back together, volunteers with the Big Sisters program, though which she gains an attention-starved 13-year-old "little sister", starts dating...more
This really should be a 3.5 stars.
This book has been sitting on my shelf for so long, I don’t even remember why I originally purchased it. I admit that one of the reasons I passed over this book so many times is because I figured it would be depressing, all about death/dying, or too much of a chick-lit-book, or maybe just not very interesting. Well, sure, there was a bit about death and dying, but the author finds a realistic way of looking at how people tend to deal with grief over the death of...more
This book has been sitting on my shelf for so long, I don’t even remember why I originally purchased it. I admit that one of the reasons I passed over this book so many times is because I figured it would be depressing, all about death/dying, or too much of a chick-lit-book, or maybe just not very interesting. Well, sure, there was a bit about death and dying, but the author finds a realistic way of looking at how people tend to deal with grief over the death of...more
A quick read; funny, likable protagonist but the plot is a little too pat. Devastated widow leaves old life behind. Sells house, moves to Oregon, opens a bakery, joins the Big Sister organization and finds that by helping others she helps herself - Amen. P.S. She also immediately finds a handsome, hot, helpful straight guy who wants to marry her. Maybe this should be shelved under fantasy.
I thought that this was a very good book, though it did get increasingly implausible. Sophie, is a recent widow at the beginning of the book, and the end of the book is around the first anniversary of her husband's death. Sophie comes over as a real person, and so do her friends and family who have faults as well as love, and the grief in the book is real and muscular. BUT - Sophie, who could not get out of bed for grief at the beginning of the book rather disconcertingly develops the organisati...more
This was a guilt free way to laugh about dealing with grief. I so enjoyed this story about thirty-six year old Sophie Stanton whose lost her husband of six years to cancer. Sophie tries desperately to be a "good" widow and tries to grieve in an efficient, proper way. But, Sophie is more like a Lucille Ball type griever and the things she thinks about and does during this process are hilariously funny.
From dust jacket:
"The funny thing about rock bottom is there's stuff underneath it. You think,...more
From dust jacket:
"The funny thing about rock bottom is there's stuff underneath it. You think,...more
Started and finished on a much-delayed flight from Newark to Denver. Let me put it this way: we were on the plane long enough to have gone to Frankfurt.
Sophie lost Ethan ... and this is the year following his death. At one point, she goes to work in her robe.
The person who gave me this book said it was "just ok", but honestly, I thought it was great. I expected it to be more chick-lit-y (maybe because of the cover?) than it was -- it wasn't really at all -- and to have less substance. I wonder i...more
Sophie lost Ethan ... and this is the year following his death. At one point, she goes to work in her robe.
The person who gave me this book said it was "just ok", but honestly, I thought it was great. I expected it to be more chick-lit-y (maybe because of the cover?) than it was -- it wasn't really at all -- and to have less substance. I wonder i...more
The book is about a woman's recovery from the death of her husband. It begins several months after the funeral, and continues past the first anniversary of his death. It is sad and funny and poignant and at times I wanted to give the woman a hard shake. Not so much for "get over it already," but for--well, idiocy. Yes, she was grieving, and maybe not entirely sane (she wears her bunny slippers and robe to work at one point--hence the cover), but there are several points where she's so totally cl...more
This is essentially a chick-lit book, but it feels a little more complex. The chapters are loosely based on the stages of grief, with some additions (the chapter titled Oreos, for example.) I often don't enjoy books based on grief, but although this book was heartbreaking in parts, it was also extremely funny - often on the same page. An excerpt relatively near the beginning of the book, for example:
I could barely talk during the weeks after the memorial service. "Herg," I'd stutter when people...more
I could barely talk during the weeks after the memorial service. "Herg," I'd stutter when people...more
Este foi um livro que trouxe da biblioteca sem ter nenhuma referência acerca dele. Foi uma escolha totalmente ao acaso e não me arrependi.
Sophie é uma mulher que de um momento para o outro vê a doença instalar-se na sua casa e "rouba-lhe" o marido com quem está casada à três anos. Confrontada com a morte, Sophie cai no abismo da tristeza e da solidão e dá início a um dos processos mais difíceis da condição humana: o processo de luto.
O conteúdo é bastante fiel àquilo a que podemos chamar de proce...more
Sophie é uma mulher que de um momento para o outro vê a doença instalar-se na sua casa e "rouba-lhe" o marido com quem está casada à três anos. Confrontada com a morte, Sophie cai no abismo da tristeza e da solidão e dá início a um dos processos mais difíceis da condição humana: o processo de luto.
O conteúdo é bastante fiel àquilo a que podemos chamar de proce...more
This wasn't an amazing, life-changing book, but it was a good, light read that dealt with a hard subject in an uplifting, positive way. Most of the time when you read a book about someone who lost their spouse to cancer, you can expect it to try to drag you into how difficult and depressing it is to go on with life. This book pulled you in, but instead of being depressing, it made you understand the struggles while watching a normal person get through them. I found myself rooting for Sophie as s...more
I found Lolly Winston’s “Good Grief” in the bargain section of Borders and thought that it would be a light, chick-lit type of read. Although the book is a bit uneven, sometimes turning into cheesy Chick-Lit, on a whole, it is much deeper. The main character, Sophie Stanton is dealing with the grieving process after her husband has died of cancer. Winston really nails the emotions that come with grief. My mom died of cancer two and half years ago and portions of this book really hit home. I was...more
I loved this book. Sophie Stanton came across as such an honest character. She had faults, she had heart and she had a wonderful sense of humor.
Sophie finds herself a widow at the young age of 36. She was not even used to being married before her husband, Ethan, died of cancer. Sophie's journey begins here. The depression and loss she experienced struck me as very real. I cried right along with her. Minutes later I was laughing out loud at her actions and ideas.
Sophie's struggle to piece her l...more
Sophie finds herself a widow at the young age of 36. She was not even used to being married before her husband, Ethan, died of cancer. Sophie's journey begins here. The depression and loss she experienced struck me as very real. I cried right along with her. Minutes later I was laughing out loud at her actions and ideas.
Sophie's struggle to piece her l...more
This is a great read - loved it about 36 yr. old Sophie Stanton, a recently widowed (husband had cancer) public relations manager at Gorgatech in the Silicon Valley. Basically, it is her process through the stages of grief. After showing up one day at work in her bunny slippers and robe, she decides to move to Ashland, Oregon to start over. In her healing process she becomes involved with a 13 year old pyromaniac cutter, a very handsome actor, her recently divorced best friend, and her mother-in...more
This is a funny and heartwarming book about a young woman's fight to build a new life after the death of her husband. Sophie Stanton is in her mid thirties and loses her young husband to cancer. In an age where women are expected to be high-achievers, Sophie desperately wants to be a good widow but things don't turn out that way as she is not the sterotypical type. Instead she puts away gallons of ice-cream and has major breakdowns which in turn cause her to lose her job, to say the least. Once...more
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Born and raised in the glamorous insurance capital of Hartford, Conn., Lolly Winston holds an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College, where she wrote a collection of short stories as her thesis.
Her first novel, Good Grief, published in 2004, was a New York Times best-seller, a #1 Book Sense pick, and was translated into 15 languages. The film rights have been optioned by Universal St...more
More about Lolly Winston...
Her first novel, Good Grief, published in 2004, was a New York Times best-seller, a #1 Book Sense pick, and was translated into 15 languages. The film rights have been optioned by Universal St...more
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Oct 21, 2007 08:01pm
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