"Death's Door: Modern Dying and the Ways We Grieve" is a splendid achievement and a fine companion for the "Inventions of Farewell: A Book of Elegies." I believe the elegies collection gave birth to "Death's Door."

Gilbert combines clarity and compassion, an essential combination to bring to the ultimate topic: death. The book is divided into three major parts: I. Arranging My Mourning: Five Meditations on the Psychology of Grief; II. History Makes Death: How the Twentieth Century Reshaped Dying and Mourning; II. The Handbook of Heartbreak: Contemporary Elegy and Lamentation. From this selection of categories alone, you can savor her ear for phrase and mind that adventures and gathers together psychology, History, and Literature.

Gilbert is woman and scholar and teacher and writer in this magnificent book. I read "Death's Door" as my mother lay dying and found much comfort here. I received the additional benefit of having the context of my own work illuminated and enlarged.

Sandra M. Gilbert's "Death's Door: Modern Dying and the Ways We Grieve" gave me a context to place my work within. "Sightlines: A Poet's Diary" fits into a tradition I was not consciously aware of as I wrote. I felt I had come home into a larger family with many voices.


Janet Grace Riehl, author of "Sightlines: A Poet's Diary"

Surveys of death and grieving often embrace the psychology so much that there isn't much room for other approaches, so it's surprising to find a treatment which blends a poet and critic's vision and experiences with a focus on the psychology of pain and recovery. Such a survey is DEATH'S DOOR: MODERN DYING AND THE WAYS WE GRIEVE. A survey of social and cultural history documents different processes of death and grief in society, while the author struggles with her own reactions to deaths of loved ones. Her different viewpoints help DEATH'S DOOR stand apart from the myriad of titles on the topic.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch