Editor Slawkowski-Rode gathers a collection of essays on mourning, joining a strong "cloud of witnesses" across the gamut of the academic world, from priests to philosophers and novelists to poets. Together, Slawkowski-Rode and some 15 contributors wrestle openly with a question that seems generally hidden today. Denial of death or its sequestering in closed hospital rooms—especially since the COVID-19 pandemic—leaves many people with a sense of purposelessness or lack of closure with those who died. Given that this volume includes contributions from such authors as Eleanor Stump (chapter 2, "The Problem of Mourning") and Roger Scruton (chapter 12, "The Work of Mourning"), readers will be sure to gain insight from this collective analysis. The multidisciplinary approach Slawkowski-Rode takes in chapter 9 ("Mourning and the Second-Person Perspective") enables readers to see the issue from multiple angles while also considering the ever-present reality of the grief those left behind experience. Readers interested in comparative exploration of these issues at an advanced level might do well to consult Lydia Dugdale's The Lost Art of Dying (2021). Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students and faculty. General readers.

Choice Reviews

This book, The Meaning of Mourning: Perspectives on Death, Loss, and Grief, explores our experience of mourning from different angles. It's understandable to grieve when those close to you, like your parents, die. In my own case, when my Senior Tutor, who had taken care of me since childhood, died, I felt like I'd lost the rock I'd been leaning on. Then it occurred to me that instead of spending time in sadness it would be better trying to fulfill his wishes with enthusiasm and determination.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama