Grasp Widowish Prepared By Melissa Gould Kindle

Goulds uplifting and deeply moving memoir of grieving outside the box and the surprising nature of love,

When Melissa Gould's husband, Joel, was unexpectedly hospitalized, she could not imagine how her life was about to change.
Overwhelmed as his condition tragically worsened, she had to believe that while Joels loss was permanent, so was their love.


Left to raise their young daughter on her own, and to act as if she could resume life without her beloved husband by her side, Melissa found that she didnt fit the typical idea of widowhood or meet the expectations of mourning.
She didnt look like a widow or act like a widow, but she felt like one, Melissa was widowish.

Melissas personal journey through grief and beyond includes unlikely inspiration from an evangelical preacher, the calming presence of some Real Housewives, and the unexpected attention of a charismatic musician.


A modern take on loss, Widowish illuminates the twists of fate that break our world, the determination that keeps us moving forward, and the surprises in life we never see coming.
Honest, affecting, and thoughtprovoking!

Widowish is a tender, moving memoir that takes you into the life of Melissa Gould as she struggles to raise her daughter, grieve, move forward, and learn to love again when her world is irrevocably shattered when her husband Joel, stricken with MS, suddenly passes from West Nile Virus.


The prose is heartfelt and sincere, And the novel is a sentimental tale of one womans personal experience loving, supporting and caring for the love of her life, and ultimately finding the strength to be a mother, daughter, and independent woman after he is gone.


Overall, Widowish is a candid, impactful, lovely tale by Gould that delves into all the physical, psychological, and emotional effects of widowhood and reminds us of the importance of loving large, sharing special moments, and remembering all the little things.


Thank you to Amazon Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review, To be honest no book could ever fully sum up the ups and downs of being a widow, emotions change like the wind and thoughts go from happy to sad in a heartbeat.
In telling her story she has succeeded in setting many of them out for those who havent experienced this change in relationship status, as well as shining a light on some of the less helpful attitudes and opinions of others.
Overall she puts across well the fact of being a widow but the feeling that youre still a wife, Widowish should be a new word for the dictionary I think! A touching tale of life after loss and covered all of the emotions.
Such an easy read and I appreciate how none of it was written in a “Feel bad for me” way.
It was the perfect length, given the subject and not overly heavy, Great insight on how grief looks different for everyone, My thanks to the publisher for the early copy, Widowish was a heart felt and immersive memoir I read in one sitting, The writing was beautiful, tragic, painful, and raw, yet also hopeful as Melissa takes us on a journey as she overcomes her grief after a devastating loss of her husband Joel.


As a nurse, I empathized completely with her account of the medical issues they had to go through from the difficulties of determining the initial diagnosis, course of treatments, and eventually the ICU care and endoflife account.
I thought that Melissa explained a very complex medical history without sounding too medical and kept it simple and clear.


From the very first page, the writing gripped my heart full of emotions and didnt let

it go until the very last page.
I felt every emotion as she dealt with slowly losing the man she loves,

I found this memoir wonderfully written that touched upon chronic illness, dealing with a sick spouse, endoflife decisions, single parenting, Jewish culture, grief, and the widowish complexity and vulnerability.


I highly recommend this memoir, One of the best I have read,


The authors compelling memoir reveals her journey from happily married mother of one to sudden widow, After her beloved husband died following an unexpected hospitalization, Melissas world turned upside down, How she righted life for herself and her young daughter is at turns tragic, hopeful, at times funny, and always inspirational.
She describes not acting or looking like a widow, but feeling like one, Hence the title, WIDOWISH. This is a beautifully written account of her walk through grief to new life, Highly recommended!

ofStars

Pub DateFeb
Widowish NetGalley

Thanks to the author, Little A, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Grief is a personal experience and when life moves on and we move on with it, we never completely let go of that grief.
As we keep living, the grief will always follow us, but not always burden us the same way, In my experience, grief sometimes is plain bitter, but other times it's bittersweet,

Melissa Gould explores some important questions in her memoir, like how to choose what's best for the person you love while they're in a coma, how to approach kids with such hard subjects and how to help them deal with the aftermath of a parent's loss, and if there is a timeline in grief and when it's acceptable by our society to move on.


Even though I couldn't connect to Gould's writing style in a deeper level and often found her thoughts wordy and repetitive, the message of the book is of great importance and it is vital for such books to get published and reach readers who struggle with their grief or want to find some comfort to their grieving through the stories of others.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange to my honest review, I read almost all of this book in one sitting, tissues at the ready, It feels strange to call a memoir about living with grief a pageturner, but it definitely felt that way to me.
The writing is straightforward and assured and I found it easy to place myself in the stories Gould was spinning.
I didn't always resonate with the choices she made, but I was awed by her honesty and her willingness to put her story out there, warts and all.


I'm not sure what compelled me to read a book about a woman my age becoming and living as a widow during a global pandemic, but there is a lot of hope, love, and acceptance in this admittedly very sad story.
It somehow felt like a very fitting read for the strange times we're living in, I got my copy in the Amazon monthly early releases this morning and finished this evening,
At one point, while I was midgasp, ugly crying I asked myself, Why Why on the first day of a new year full of all the hope and possibility would I pick this story today
And I am telling you, it is the prefect story.

Many of us have been suffering a collective grief over the last year, And we have done so at home, Reading the scene where the family came in to say their final goodbyes, I was so grateful for them that they got this opportunity.
How would we ever get to a place where it would even occur to me while Im reading a book about an enormous loss that this family was so lucky to say goodbye In walking through Melissas story, there is an enormous amount of healing and comfort.
Theres an acknowledgment of the pain and the unfairness of an early loss,
And there is a deep reconciliation with stepping forward one foot in front of the other, like the tin man, to move forward.
Knowing you have no idea what level of joy and grief each day or moment will bring,
This memoir is so poetic and a true celebration of hope, grief, loss and the beauty of a life welllived.
Most of It Good, But, . .

This is a book you certainly want to like because it is born of the author's pain and tragedy.
She is very open and real about what has happened in her pastincluding the loss of her husband, their beginnings as a couple, and her early widowhoodas befitting a memoir.
However, as a nurse, I had a hard time getting past what she chose as the first scene, Given my profession, I'm not a fan of patients or patients families screaming at medical personnel, Yes, I understand the difficulty the author faced and the frustration she felt at that moment, but what would be accomplished by her yelling at the doctors in the ICU nurse's station that they should make her husband better because they are doctors in a hospital A hospital is already a highstress environment, especially the ICU.
Acting like that smacks of elitist entitlement, Thankfully, I have not actually seen that at the hospital myself most people are more reserved and circumspect when they get bad news, and they dont typically take it out on the messengers, especially those who are doing the best they can within the constraints they have.
This scene may not negatively impact anyone who isn't a medical professional, so you may enjoy this memoir more than I did.

I feel so seen, This is the best is that even a thing with these kinds of stories memoir about the loss of a SO and the grief journey that you dont want to be on but inevitably find yourself to be a reluctant rider.
From the hospital and waiting for answers that you never really will understand because there will never be a good enough explanation for why this thing is happening to your person, to the ultimate decision to let that person go, ending their suffering, but green lighting your own as you learn that new normal of life navigation on your own.
From the journey through your grief at is most consuming to finding that one day, you can bear it a little easier, breathe a little more, and keep moving forward, knowing that hes proud of you, but never missing or loving him less.
From the things youre not expecting to add to your grief but do, like the financial concerns of going from a two income household to a single income household and the overwhelming pit in your stomach you feel thinking about having to explain the death of your person to an acquaintance who doesnt know, and the constant searching for signs and the existence of “widow brain.
” From the challenges of doing your favorite things or watching shows that you once watched together to finding that mindless thing you could take comfort in.
From the weird ways people choose to show sympathy and try to relate, to the awkward and constant hugs, From allowing yourself to do things the easy way to giving yourself permission to be attracted and flirt a little, even if it feels weird and foreign, but exciting and right all at the same time.
And, finally, finding that new love and letting yourself be loved again, and knowing that it in no way lessens the love for the person you lost.


I connected so much to Melissas journey as someone who has also experienced the loss of my boyfriend and partner ofyears, who had to make similar decisions about life support, and who has lived through my own grief journey, with the support of family, friends, grief support groups.
Although grief is an extremely personal and unique experience, its nice to know youre not alone, Melissas story was relatable, real, and beautiful, Her grief and love were palpable through her words, This was an incredible tribute to a beautiful relationship and to a man whose life ended far too soon,

To Melissa, thank you for writing your story, Thank you for sharing your journey, This was the grief book I had been searching for and wanting for the lastand a half years, When my husband died suddenly last July, I instinctively and intuitively reached out to books, In the immediate aftermath, nothing felt like a conscious decision, especially the desire to read, I was blindly following the patterns of my lifeimmersing myself in an unfamiliar landscape, awed by the way words on a page suddenly and inexplicably become a private conversation in which contemplation is encouraged, emerging only after the dialogue has reached a stopping point that pushes me back into my surroundings wholly and utterly transformed.


Although Ive read different types of books over the last nine months, Ive found myself gravitating towards those in which loss plays a central role.
Each of these has been characterized by one defining feature that separates it from the otherssome unique component that resonates, elevates, and endures.
However, out of the various genres that take on the messy subject of grief, it is the memoirs that have been the most rewarding of the reading experiences.
By reaching backwards into their own personal nightmares, the skilled memoirist manages to drag readers through the wasteland of loss before carefully moving them upward towards a more promising future.
The catharsis that emerges from their personal emotional reckonings has shaped the contours of my own journey,

As a result, I hold great reverence for each of these memoirs, Every single one of them, Until now.
From a distance, Melissa Goulds “Widowish” seems promising, It is a recently published narrative written by an Emmynominated screenwriter/producer who loses her husband before either one of them is.
The publishers blurb includes a description of Gould as a woman who doesnt fit the “typical mold of widowhood,” someone who doesnt “look or act like a widow” yet struggles to rebuild her life in a similar manner to those women who do meet the cultural dictates and stereotypes.
Goulds story is supposed to be uplifting and deeply moving,

Its not. Although the writing is solid, Gould doesnt offer much in the way of insight, nor does she use what memoirtheorist and critic Vivian Gornick calls “an organizing principle.
” Basically, Gould tells her story from start to finish and leaves it at that, The recounting of the past is the redeeming factor in her narrative and why I gave it three: Gould falls in love with her future husband while working a summer job in college, but they dont get together until years later they build a rewarding life together that is hardhit when he is diagnosed with rapidlydebilitating MS at the age offive years into his diagnosis, he suddenly gets sick and falls into a coma it takes a few weeks for the doctors to figure out what happened and after making the painful decision to turn off lifesupport, she is left with a teenage daughter who wavers between heartwrenching need and emotional unavailability.


The story itself could have taken on the kind of resonating quality present in the other memoirs, but it just never gets there.
As Gornick says, its not what happens to the writer, its what “the writer is able to make of what happened.
” Unfortunately, Goulds inability to impart any insight about her emotional journey prevents her from tying the threads of her narrative together.
In fact, the last third of the book is completely clouded by her falling in love unexpectedly with a handsome acquaintance six months after her husband died.
Its not that she fell in love so quickly that bothers me, I think its perfectly understandable that someone who once enjoyed a healthy, fulfilling relationship would want that againthat she might attract that kind of relationship more quickly.
The problem is that once she becomes coupled, the narrative ceases to be about her journey of loss and more about her excitement that their relationship is accepted by her social circle.
Unfortunately, this backward plunge into a highschoolera need for popularity and adoration hurts the narrative by undermining some of its better aspects.
. Instead of being uplifted, I just felt annoyed, .