A Grief Sublime

A Grief Sublime by Beth Robbins is a work of creative non-fiction that begins with the moment Robbins is informed of her husband’s sudden death in a car accident. The book moves in a fragmented way, from the aftermath of devastation, to Robbins’s childhood near Long Beach, New York to moments in her marriage to Steve “Sproutman” Meyerowitz, to the lived experience of grief. Her navigation of grief becomes a hero’s journey and ultimately leads to rediscovery. Distinguishing Robbins’s book is her lyrical style which brings readers into the direct and immediate experience of deep tragedy as well as literature. Robbins enters into conversation with Keats and Whitman, Melville and Dickinson, discovering, through these writers, that grief has amplified life’s spectrum, welcoming her into the realm of literature where imagination meets experience in new and profound ways. “The fragmentation, or, perhaps better said, the shattering of my world led me to look for conversation, reconnection, dialogue,” says Robbins. “My poets, as I began to call them, offered me solace. They spoke to meaning and purpose. Somehow Steve’s death allowed me to (re)discover my strength.” Written in lyrical and narrative style, this heartbreaking story is ultimately hopeful and transcendent, transforming despair into a new experience of life. And a recognition of the love that remains after death.