Determined to start over, she moves to Ashland, Oregon, where she finds herself in the middle of a darkly madcap adventure involving a 13-year-old pyromaniac and an alarmingly handsome actor who inspires a range of feelings she can't cope with-yet. Alas, she's been drowning her sorrows in ice cream and showing up to work in her bunny slippers and bathrobe. Thirty-six-year-old Sophie Stanton wants to be a good widow-a graceful, composed, Jackie Kennedy kind of widow. The perfect book for anyone who has ever been heartbroken, lost someone they loved, or eaten too many Oreos. Still, 'Good Grief' is a touching portrayal of one widow's struggle to heal - Oreo binges and all.About the Book Now in paperback comes the brilliantly funny and heartwarming debut about a young woman who stumbles, then fights to build a new life after the death of her husband.īook Synopsis A brilliantly funny and heartwarming debut about a young woman who stumbles, then fights to build a new life after the death of her husband. Even suckers for happy endings might scoff at how Winston blandly wraps everything up in a perfectly tied - just a little crooked for good measure - bow.

She adopts Crystal, a troubled preteen 'little sister' (whose dialogue epitomizes the many meanings an adolescent ascribes to 'whatever'), and a somewhat too- perfect actor boyfriend who seems to be an amalgam of a woman's dreams (he really listens to her). With a running theme of food as a source of comfort - from eating it to making it - the tale follows Sophie as she begins her new life. The reader may feel both jarred by the shift and relieved by the lighter style. When Sophie moves to Oregon to start anew, the book's tone lightens somewhat and loses focus in the process. The protagonist takes on Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) and then invents some of her own (pill popping, binge eating, drinking, lusting, pie baking).

Winston makes this intensity bearable by letting the reader up for little breaths of air with the unexpected humor and cleverness of the charming Sophie. Set during Silicon Valley's turbulent Internet boom, the novel's chapters preceding the breakdown are deep, dark and beautiful in their depiction of her suffering. Lolly Winston's first novel, 'Good Grief,' about Sophie, a young grieving widow, begins with such gloomy intensity that it's a relief when, during a mental breakdown, she shows up to her corporate job sporting a bathrobe and bunny slippers.

Good Grief by Lolly Winston