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Against Death: 35 Essays on Living
Against Death: 35 Essays On Living articulates the personal experiences of each author’s “near-deathness,” utilizing fresh and inventive language to represent what “magical thinking” proposes. These pieces are incisive and articulate, avoiding the usual platitudes, feel-good bromides, and pep talks associated with near-death encounters. The writing moves past the sob story and confronts the tough circumstance of facing death with truth and compassion, no matter how ugly or (in)convenient.
Contributors:
Adrian M. Zytkoskee * Aislinn Hunter * Amanda Earl * Angela Rawlings * Becky Blake * Ben Gallagher * Bruce Meyer * C. M. Faulkner * Elee Kraljii Gardiner * Emma Smith-Stevens * Fiona Tinwei Lam * Harry Langen * Jane Mellor * Jennie Duguay * Jennifer Van Evra * Jessica Michalofsky * Jill Yonit Goldberg * Joe Average * John Asfour * Kateri Lanthier * Kerri Power * Kiera Miller * Laurie Lewis * Lisa Neighbour * Maureen Medved * Moira MacDougall * Nikki Reimer * Rabi Qureshi * Rachel Rose * Rebecca Fredrickson * Sarah Lyn Eaton * Susan Briscoe * Susan Cormier * Tanis MacDonald * Vera Constantineau
Contributors:
Adrian M. Zytkoskee * Aislinn Hunter * Amanda Earl * Angela Rawlings * Becky Blake * Ben Gallagher * Bruce Meyer * C. M. Faulkner * Elee Kraljii Gardiner * Emma Smith-Stevens * Fiona Tinwei Lam * Harry Langen * Jane Mellor * Jennie Duguay * Jennifer Van Evra * Jessica Michalofsky * Jill Yonit Goldberg * Joe Average * John Asfour * Kateri Lanthier * Kerri Power * Kiera Miller * Laurie Lewis * Lisa Neighbour * Maureen Medved * Moira MacDougall * Nikki Reimer * Rabi Qureshi * Rachel Rose * Rebecca Fredrickson * Sarah Lyn Eaton * Susan Briscoe * Susan Cormier * Tanis MacDonald * Vera Constantineau
352 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 7, 2019
I have been making my way thoughtfully through this anthology one essay at a time, since I received my contributor copy in late summer. The first thing I did was bleed on it. This made me smile. I am writing about a book I have work in, my essay, “After Survival,” about my near-death health crisis and afterward. Head’s up.
I didn’t realize until I read Jill Yonit Goldberg’s essay, “Death’s Long Embrace,” toward the end of the anthology, just how much I needed the book, these essays on survival. Like her, I will repeat part of what 19th C. Polish Rabbi Simcha Bunem wrote and which she cites: “I am but dust and ashes,” as a way to accept, as Jill puts it, “For it is this knowing, this humbling of myself that has allowed me to accept the normalness, the banality of my distress, and to stop insisting that life itself is obliged to bend to my will.”
I was surprised how much I related to my fellow survivors’ experiences. Some of us went through delusions during health crises, fever and medication. Some of us don’t waste time on bullshit. A few of the responses to near death were gratitude. As Elee Kraljii Gardiner puts it in her own essay, “Now I watch my body progress through aging, a natural process maligned and criticized by media, and I think at least I am here to witness the rot!” There is a lot of defiance in these essays. It was heartening to read shared attitudes towards life and experiences. As Elee points out in her essay, there’s a feeling of recognition to meet someone who has come close to death. We share a bond. This bond was heightened for me with these contributions.
Some of the harder essays for me to hear, but necessary just the same, were those by the mourners, people who have lost someone dear and are trying to cope, such as Adrian M. Zytkoskee’s beautiful piece, “The Things She Left Behind” and Ben Gallagher’s essay, “Full Belly, Empty Sky: Death and Parenthood” “death is what makes these feelings possible;” and Nikki Reimer's essay about her brother, Chris. Difficult to hear for me because I came close to death and I still feel guilty about what my husband and dear friends and family went through at that time.
I have dog-eared too many pages to write about all the essays in this book, but I gained something from all of them. angela rawlings piece about the art and ritual she shared with fellow grievers in Iceland entitled “Tears: Grief Ritual;” Lisa Neighbor’s art of the ephemeral in “The School of Possibility: Living and Creating After Surviving;” The book is an enriching read and I believe it is a necessary read. These are urgent thoughts collected within the pages of the book. Any one of us could die at any moment. This book is a gift. I am grateful to be part of it.
I didn’t realize until I read Jill Yonit Goldberg’s essay, “Death’s Long Embrace,” toward the end of the anthology, just how much I needed the book, these essays on survival. Like her, I will repeat part of what 19th C. Polish Rabbi Simcha Bunem wrote and which she cites: “I am but dust and ashes,” as a way to accept, as Jill puts it, “For it is this knowing, this humbling of myself that has allowed me to accept the normalness, the banality of my distress, and to stop insisting that life itself is obliged to bend to my will.”
I was surprised how much I related to my fellow survivors’ experiences. Some of us went through delusions during health crises, fever and medication. Some of us don’t waste time on bullshit. A few of the responses to near death were gratitude. As Elee Kraljii Gardiner puts it in her own essay, “Now I watch my body progress through aging, a natural process maligned and criticized by media, and I think at least I am here to witness the rot!” There is a lot of defiance in these essays. It was heartening to read shared attitudes towards life and experiences. As Elee points out in her essay, there’s a feeling of recognition to meet someone who has come close to death. We share a bond. This bond was heightened for me with these contributions.
Some of the harder essays for me to hear, but necessary just the same, were those by the mourners, people who have lost someone dear and are trying to cope, such as Adrian M. Zytkoskee’s beautiful piece, “The Things She Left Behind” and Ben Gallagher’s essay, “Full Belly, Empty Sky: Death and Parenthood” “death is what makes these feelings possible;” and Nikki Reimer's essay about her brother, Chris. Difficult to hear for me because I came close to death and I still feel guilty about what my husband and dear friends and family went through at that time.
I have dog-eared too many pages to write about all the essays in this book, but I gained something from all of them. angela rawlings piece about the art and ritual she shared with fellow grievers in Iceland entitled “Tears: Grief Ritual;” Lisa Neighbor’s art of the ephemeral in “The School of Possibility: Living and Creating After Surviving;” The book is an enriching read and I believe it is a necessary read. These are urgent thoughts collected within the pages of the book. Any one of us could die at any moment. This book is a gift. I am grateful to be part of it.
December 9, 2019
Disclaimer: I have an essay in this collection.
I’m so proud to have an essay in this book! It’s a very strong collection of well written and edited essays from people who’ve come up against death in all kinds of different ways. Near drowning, cancer, car accident, death of loved ones, suicidality, anaphylaxis and more. There wasn’t excessive repetition of any one type of experience and the book isn’t “depressing” in the ways some might assume based on its content. I looked forward to each new essay.
September 27, 2019
It was truly an honour and a privilege to receive these stories and sit with them. It is important that we normalize speaking about and sharing these narratives, so that our attitudes and ability to cope with grief and loss can evolve.
January 24, 2020
It takes time to digest each essay in this collection- The authors are giving away intimate views into their lives and pains and experiences.
This is a beautiful look into death and it’s reach.
This is a beautiful look into death and it’s reach.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews