HERE AFTER

by Amy Lin

Not only did Robin, one of my oldest friends from Dartmouth, recommend this book to me, she actually handed me her copy when she finished reading it this summer. Having the book on my shelf certainly bumped it up on my reading list, and I’m so grateful Robin shared this beautiful little book. 

Lin’s memoir is presented in short bursts of feeling and story that reads like a journal. A writer and teacher already, Lin uses the process of writing this book to work through the aftermath of her husband’s sudden death at the age of 32. He went out for a run, collapsed and never regainined consciousness. Within weeks of this dramatic event, Lin herself was hospitalized, near death with blood clots in her legs. In her writing, Lin deals with how her grief and healing process  seemed endless and infinite. And although she experienced kindness from others, she also sensed a lot of impatience as time and life moved on without her. 

Here After is a heartbreaking story, filled with darkness as Lin faces death and loss over the course of several years. It reminds me of Joan Didion’s Year of Magical Thinking (read review here) in that it caused me to pause and think about what is important in my own life and the value I place on my own time. It may sound cliched, but Here After caused me to remember that we never know how much time we have. (Lily)