Author: Jayson Greene
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Published: May 14, 2019
Book Description: As the book opens: two-year-old Greta Greene is sitting with her grandmother on a park bench on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. A brick crumbles from a windowsill overhead, striking her unconscious, and she is immediately rushed to the hospital. But although it begins with this event and with the anguish Jayson and his wife, Stacy, confront in the wake of their daughter’s trauma and the hours leading up to her death, Once More We Saw Stars quickly becomes a narrative that is as much about hope and healing as it is about grief and loss. Jayson recognizes, even in the midst of his ordeal, that there will be a life for him beyond it–that if only he can continue moving forward, from one moment to the next, he will survive what seems unsurvivable. With raw honesty, deep emotion, and exquisite tenderness, he captures both the fragility of life and absoluteness of death, and most important of all, the unconquerable power of love. This is an unforgettable memoir of courage and transformation–and a book that will change the way you look at the world.
Rating: 4 Stars
Review: Going into this memoir, I had my tissue box handy. I had listened to a couple of interviews with the Author and knew exactly what I was getting into. The experience of reading was so much more than I expected.
When Greene’s daughter Greta was two years old she was killed when a loose brick fell off a building onto her head in NYC. What happened after was one of the most generous stories to such a horrific incident. Greene and his wife handled her death with grace and would not let her go in vain. That first section will take a lot of you to read. I had to take several pauses.
After that harrowing experience, you will go on a journey with them, it was not easy, and Greene laid out some very dark moments and also showed is there is very much a light at the end of that tunnel.
Some the moments are utterly heartbreaking, then other moments you will laugh out loud. This book is the embodiment of how to handle grief, and no, there is no perfect way. This book has a time and place for everyone. If you are in the right frame of mind, I think readers will learn a lot in this book about loss and how we move on.
Obsessed Bookaholic 