The Grim Reader

by Richard Tristman (editor), Maura Spiegel (Editor)

   The fear of death, the pain of bereavement, the art of consolation, and the custom of mourning—these are experiences with which all mortals must reckon.  In The Grim Reader, editors Maura Spiegel and Richard Tristman have gathered the best classic and contemporary writing on mortality—from Montaigne to Monty Python—to produce an essential resource for the heart and mind. These idiosyncratic and always enlightening pieces are grouped into thematic parts in which a diversity of perspective on death are revealed.  From death in its most personal sphere to the major issues of death in the public realm, The Grim Reader offers a fresh and unmediated encounter with mortality and the many dimensions of grief and recovery.

   A compelling collection of poems, fiction, letters, historical documents, essays, and narrations from a wide variety of writers, including:

Vladimir Nabokov- John Ashbery- Samuel Beckett
Adam Smith- Simone de Beauvoir- Grace Paley
Giovanni Boccaccio- Bertolt Brecht- Roland Barthes
James Baldwin- Primo Levi- Anne Sexton
Luis Buñuel- Paul Monette- Jessica Mitford- Stanley Elkin
 




From the Trade Paperback edition.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Anthologies, Death

448 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 17, 1997

Reviews

[Elizabeth Suggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very strong pieces taken from different authors and compiled together that makes for great collection of poems and stories about the death and dying process.

Here are my two favorite lines:

"The goal of our career is death."

"It’s better to die violently and not too old."

[Brett Ortler · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is some great work in here, but I thought the introductory essays preceding each piece were a bit long and usually unnecessary. The works selected, however, were almost all wonderful. If you're interested in the subject matter, check it out, as it combines a wide variety of essays and pieces you likely won't find on your own.