Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsPart good, part okay!
Reviewed in India on 9 August 2017
Before going ahead with the review, I must clarify that I do not have any experience of losing a loved one to death. That maybe the reason for my review bias. And going by some other reviews, I expected the book to make me cry: it did not.
The book has two parts intertwined into each other- Sheryl Sandberg's personal stories regarding her husband's death and Adam Grant's psychological research on resilience. The book is really interesting in parts where the stories are personal and Sheryl does a great job at bringing all the emotional elephants in the room out in the book. She discusses in detail all the feelings and difficult conversations she has with her friends and family after her unimaginable loss.
The book is a slight let down because then all the authenticity of emotions regarding grief seem to be washed and watered down with research and data. Sure research is important, but it would have been better if it were a separate book or a separate section so readers could choose which one to focus on. I'm not sure anyone in the midst of grieving would want to read, "Illness is a factor in more than 40% of the bankruptcies in the U.S., and there's evidence that people with cancer are more than 2.5 times more likely to file for bankruptcy."
The first 5 chapters seem to be more personalised and deal with recognising and managing feelings while the next 5 deal with building resilience and growing from loss and has more third-person stories.
It is a small book, and can easily be read in a short time. Although I recommend reading it for Sheryl's personal stories, I think there might be better books on grieving and facing adversity than this. [Do check out Man's Seach For Meaning by Victor Frankl]
[ I bought a paperback version of the book and the pages, binding, fonts are all good.]
