An Ambiguous Grief

An Ambiguous Grief is a beautiful unflinchingly honest poignant and wistful memoir written with humor and a graceful sangfroid that is admirable. One thing Dominique Hunter has done extremely well is to reveal her son Dylans story in the exact right way: readers know upfront that she has lost him but they dont know how. By the time we find out what happened to him we know enough about his struggles and hers to understand how he came to that point in his life. Although the story is about Dylan in the end it tells the story of a mothers journey through coping with a devastating loss and moving forward - not getting over it but facing it by using her intelligence humor honesty and humanity to deal with it in all its messy sad loving ironic despairing hopeful ambivalent ways. And to survive that journey she takes us into an imaginative realm where past present and future align to give her the space to heal. - Susan Edwards Editor FloridaA brave and beautiful memoir. The author managed to write an engaging not-depressing book about surely the most painful and depressing experience a mother could ever have. She gives us an affectionate and realistic portrait of her son and indeed of herself that is full of love and its effect on the reader is to make life feel precious and rich and to encourage us to love hard the people we love who will someday be gone from us one way or another without either sentimentality or didacticism. It would have been so easy and understandable for this book to be nearly unbearable to read too personal for an outsider to connect to a manifestation of despair. It isnt. It is deceptively light and full of light. That is quite an accomplishment. - Lisa Kaufman Editor NYC