Description: When you grieve, the world changes. However, much of the writing on grief is from outside the process, like viewing a distant planet through a telescope. The Unwanted Blessing is written by a father at the center of it all, who is dealing with the loss of a son to cancer. Like an astronaut sending back pictures from Mars, he offers instead an orientation to this new world through close up, first hand snapshots of the landscape. Here, rather than providing answers for or distractions from the grief itself, he offers a collage of feelings, events, questions, and prayers. The new terrain is reflected back stripped of any intellectual veneer or assent to understanding, and this new world is laid bare at your feet. In acknowledging the way it is, the book provides signposts of comfort in simply letting the reader know that they are not alone. Perhaps, it proposes, grieving is about going to where God is absent for a bit so that we can find him again. Perhaps, grieving is more central to God's story than the events that cause the grief. Perhaps, it is God's unwanted blessing.
Brief description: Morgan Meis writes about art and culture for such magazines as n+1, Harper's, and Slate. He is a contributor at The New Yorker. He won the Whiting Award for nonfiction in 2013. He has a PhD in philosophy from The New School for Social Research. He lives in Detroit.
Review Quotes: "The Unwanted Blessing is a beautiful and heartbreaking love song--to lost children, to God, even to pain and grief. This book of scattered poems, pictures, and letters is a reminder that life is both a gift and utterly beyond our control."
--Stefany Anne Goldberg, author, Dead People
"Simply said, Jim is the real deal and his words offer a thoughtful reflection on the death of a loved one in the midst of living, while somehow inviting a deeper connection to God."
--Tavye Morgan Triemer, spiritual director
"The Unwanted Blessing hits the core of those who have been touched by loss too early. The pursuit to move forward shadowed by grief is a testament to a super human condition."
--Vince Zangaro, Alzheimer's Music Fest