"An unflinching and deeply absorbing memoir of grief and loss, expertly narrated by the author."—Library Journal (Starred Review)
"Crosley's narration is frank and articulate, a perfect complement to the wit and candor of her prose."—BookPage
"Crosley's fresh imagery and pithy one-liners are delivered with perfect timing."—AudioFile
This program is read by the author.
Disarmingly witty and poignant, Sloane Crosley's memoir explores multiple kinds of loss following the death of her closest friend.
Grief Is for People is a deeply moving and surprisingly suspenseful portrait of friendship, and a book about loss packed with verve for life. Sloane Crosley is one of our most renowned observers of contemporary behavior, and now the pathos that has been ever present in her trademark wit is on full display. After the pain and confusion of losing her closest friend to suicide, Crosley looks for answers in friends, philosophy, and art, hoping for a framework more useful than the unavoidable stages of grief.
For most of her adult life, Sloane and Russell worked together and played together as they navigated the corridors of office life, the literary world, and the dramatic cultural shifts in New York City. One day, while Russell is still alive, Sloane's apartment is broken into. Along with her most prized possessions, the thief makes off with her sense of security, leaving a mystery in its place.
When Russell dies exactly one month later, his suicide propels her on a wild quest to right the unrightable, to explore what constitutes family and possession as the city itself faces the staggering toll brought on by the pandemic.
Crosley's search for truth is frank, darkly funny, and gilded with a resounding empathy. Upending the "grief memoir," Grief Is for People is the category-defying story of the struggle to hold on to the past without being consumed by it. A modern elegy, it rises precisely to console and challenge our notions of mourning during these grief-stricken times.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
"An unflinching and deeply absorbing memoir of grief and loss, expertly narrated by the author."—Library Journal (Starred Review)
"Crosley's narration is frank and articulate, a perfect complement to the wit and candor of her prose."—BookPage
"Crosley's fresh imagery and pithy one-liners are delivered with perfect timing."—AudioFile
This program is read by the author.
Disarmingly witty and poignant, Sloane Crosley's memoir explores multiple kinds of loss following the death of her closest friend.
Grief Is for People is a deeply moving and surprisingly suspenseful portrait of friendship, and a book about loss packed with verve for life. Sloane Crosley is one of our most renowned observers of contemporary behavior, and now the pathos that has been ever present in her trademark wit is on full display. After the pain and confusion of losing her closest friend to suicide, Crosley looks for answers in friends, philosophy, and art, hoping for a framework more useful than the unavoidable stages of grief.
For most of her adult life, Sloane and Russell worked together and played together as they navigated the corridors of office life, the literary world, and the dramatic cultural shifts in New York City. One day, while Russell is still alive, Sloane's apartment is broken into. Along with her most prized possessions, the thief makes off with her sense of security, leaving a mystery in its place.
When Russell dies exactly one month later, his suicide propels her on a wild quest to right the unrightable, to explore what constitutes family and possession as the city itself faces the staggering toll brought on by the pandemic.
Crosley's search for truth is frank, darkly funny, and gilded with a resounding empathy. Upending the "grief memoir," Grief Is for People is the category-defying story of the struggle to hold on to the past without being consumed by it. A modern elegy, it rises precisely to console and challenge our notions of mourning during these grief-stricken times.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Critiques-
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Starred review from December 11, 2023
In this aching meditation on loss and friendship, essayist and novelist Crosley (Cult Classic) eulogizes her late literary mentor and best friend against the backdrop of the high-pressure publishing industry. At 25, Crosley applied for a job opening at Vintage Books. Russell Perreault, the then-37-year-old head of the paperback imprint’s publicity department, was charmed and offered her the job. When Crosley, who was hesitant to leave her current position at “a more commercial publishing house,” asked for a second interview, Russell shot back, “It’s like you’ve been admitted to Harvard but first you need a tour of the bathrooms.” From there, the two became fast friends as they faced down crises both minor and major, including the exposure of James Frey’s lies in his fictionalized 2003 memoir, A Million Little Pieces. By the 2010s, however, Russell’s light began to dim—Crosley stopped receiving invitations to his country house after his romantic life imploded, and changing workplace norms silenced his signature banter. On June 27, 2019, Crosley’s apartment was burglarized; exactly one month later, Russell died by suicide. Crosley elegantly links the two losses by explaining how her fevered desire to reclaim her burglarized items stood in for her inability to reclaim Russell. Her characteristically whip-smart prose takes on a newly introspective quality as she reinvigorates dusty publishing memoir tropes and captures the minutiae of a complicated friendship with humor and heart. This is a must-read. Agent: Jay Mandel, WME. -
Narrating her memoir, Sloane Crosley delivers ironic humor that balances the horror of back-to-back traumas. Admitting the unlikelihood and disorientation of what happened, Crosley links the vulnerability she felt at a burgled apartment and, a month later, at the suicide of her boss and friend, Russell. Their shared history in the shifting publishing industry serves as a backdrop, a potential rationale for Russell's suicide, and one more compelling facet of this audio. Crosley's fresh imagery and pithy one-liners are delivered with perfect timing, sometimes rapid fire and at other times with introspective pauses. Complex relationships and complicated feelings add to experiences of theft, suicide, and the Covid pandemic. Crosley's wit and sometimes witlessness are as reconcilable and relatable as her raw reactions and wishful imaginings. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
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Starred review from May 1, 2024
With sharp observations and bookish insight, Crosley (Cult Classic) elucidates her response to two traumatic events that happened in a short timeframe--a burglary and the death of her friend and former boss Russell by suicide. In what seems to be a targeted act of crime, someone breaks into Crosley's New York City apartment and steals heirloom jewelry out of her Dutch spice cabinet, bought with Russell at a flea market. Not long after this unnerving event, she learns of Russell's unexpected death, which sends her into the depths of grief. Her entertaining efforts to get her jewelry back intertwine with her longing to bring Russell back too. Crosley crisply narrates the memoir, which is divided into five sections, titled for the stages of grief, although the last is notably called "afterward" instead of "acceptance." She perfectly delivers her thoughtful but often wry and humorous lines without her tone ever getting noticeably emotional, even as the story is often steeped in sadness, and her self-awareness and evenhanded depiction of Russell make the memoir all the more poignant. VERDICT An unflinching and deeply absorbing memoir of grief and loss, expertly narrated by the author.--Melissa DeWild
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
