The Light of the World

This book by Elizabeth Alexander was one I read because I thought my friend, Joan* had recommended it. Turns out she told me she could NOT read it. But it was too late. I cried and I sighed and my heart broke and soared. It is a book about loss, specifically the death of her husband from a heart attack when he was barely 50 years old. He was a refugee from the wars in Eritrea, but embraced life with a fervor that perhaps sought to balance out the trauma he had endured.
So it is also a book about love and living life to the fullest. Not many of us will have a love or a marriage like Elizabeth and Ficre, but if we have loved at all, then we know that loss is the inevitable flip side of the coin. Whether or not this is a loss you have experienced personally, much will resonate as she describes her --and her sons'-- struggle to cope with life after Ficre.
Alexander is a poetry professor at Yale so it is not surprising that her writing is rich in sensory image, emotion and recollection. She read one of her poems at Obama's 2009 inauguration. Well worth reading. Much more comprehensive review here from the NYTimes and this much briefer but touching one from Kirkus.