Strange how coincidences go, but while reading the novel What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez (another book, this one fiction, that I’d highly recommend about grappling with mortality), I spied the book Getting to Know Death: A Meditation by Gail Godwin on our store’s Biography table.

Death, for me, as I’m sure it is for many, is the elephant in the room that I’d rather not discuss. Normal, since I enjoy living so much and am blessed with so many loving people and advantages, but as the title states, Getting to Know Death is inevitable.

The circumstances surrounding Gali Godwin’s (three time National Book Award finalist albeit awhile ago 1975, 1980 and 1983) recent book are thus: at 85, she fell attempting to water a dying dogwood tree, breaking her neck. What transpires is a beautiful rendering of a life lived, with pain and suffering that I won’t spoil here, suffice to say she’s dealt with death on many levels.

What I think anyone can appreciate about her book is the tackling of the question; what do you do when faced with circumstances beyond your control that alter your life in such a way that border on being too much to bear? What have others done, those famous (Henry James, Samuel Beckett) and not so (her father and half brother) when faced with quality of life compromising occurrences?

Even more inspiring is Gail’s gallant grace, accepting what she can and can no longer do, but still fighting to remember and honor what she did accomplish in award-winning books and libretti (co-written with her partner, composer Robert Starer). Godwin sprinkles the memoir with passages of her own and other writers she’s admired, all while gently sharing the unexpected silver linings produced due to her accident. Getting to Know Death: A Meditation is a solace and elder field guide for people of any age.

Getting to Know Death: A Meditation by Gail Godwin Publication Date June 11, 2024 ISBN #: 9781639734443. Now available at BookStore1 Sarasota at 117 S. Pineapple Ave., or on their online store at www.sarasotabooks.com.