Sunday, December 27, 2020

My Wife Said You May Want to Marry Me

Book 68 of my 2020 Reading Challenge
read from September 30 - October 17

My Wife Said You May Want to Marry Me
by Jason Rosenthal

Summary (via Goodreads)
published 2020

On March 3, 2017, Amy Krouse Rosenthal penned an op-ed piece for the New York Times’ “Modern Love” column —”You May Want to Marry My Husband.” It appeared ten days before her death from ovarian cancer. A heartbreaking, wry, brutally honest, and creative play on a personal ad—in which a dying wife encouraged her husband to go on and find happiness after her demise—the column quickly went viral, reaching more than five million people worldwide.
In My Wife Said You May Want to Marry Me, Jason describes what came next: his commitment to respecting Amy’s wish, even as he struggled with her loss. Surveying his life before, with, and after Amy, Jason ruminates on love, the pain of watching a loved one suffer, and what it means to heal—how he and their three children, despite their profound sorrow, went on. Jason’s emotional journey offers insights on dying and death and the excruciating pain of losing a soulmate, and illuminates the lessons he learned.
As he reflects on Amy’s gift to him—a fresh start to fill his empty space with a new story—Jason describes how he continues to honor Amy’s life and her last wish, and how he seeks to appreciate every day and live in the moment while trying to help others coping with loss. My Wife Said You May Want to Marry Me is the poignant, unreserved, and inspiring story of a great love, the aftermath of a marriage ended too soon, and how a surviving partner eventually found a new perspective on life’s joys in the wake of tremendous loss.

My Opinion
4 stars

If the description interests you, you should read this book because it's well-written and relatable.  I was reading through tears in multiple sections.

I had a passing familiarity with the essay that started it all but I hadn't heard of Amy as an author previously.  The passages he included of hers made me want to check out her books as well and now that I've looked them up, I've read most of her childrens' books and look forward to reading her adult ones as well.  

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