Book Review: The Rules of Inherietance

One of the reasons that I like to do book reviews with BlogHer is because it forces me to read books that are outside of what I normally would read.  Reading and then reviewing books broadens my horizons and introduces me to authors that I may never have met otherwise.  I never would have picked up The Rules of Inheritance on my own, but would I have been missing out if I had never read this book.

The Rules of Inheritance is a memoir written by Claire Bidwell Smith.  When Claire is 14 years old, both of her parents are diagnosed with cancer.  By her mid-twenties, both of her parents  have passed away.  While I’m not typically a fan of it, the non-linear fashion fits the book well.  As the story jumps from time period to time period, you can see Claire in the various stages of grief, underscoring the fact that grief itself is non-linear.

Claire is an only child whose mother dies when Claire is just 18 and her father dies just 7 years later when she is 25.  We watch as Claire’s grief leads her to drop out of college, drink too heavily and engage in a questionable romantic relationship and ultimately (and understandably) feeling very alone.  It’s a powerful struggle to watch as this young woman must cope with her grief.  Through her struggle, she begins to find some peace as she marries her husband and they begin their family.  She begins to feel less alone in the world and has a new appreciation of what she had.

As someone who has not had to deal with the loss of someone close to me as an adult (my parents are living and my grandparents passed away when I was  much younger), I was surprised how moved I was by this  memoir.  The author is brutally honest and that honesty had a profound effect on me.

The BlogHer Book Club will be discussing this book over the next several weeks.  Stop over and see what we are chatting about!

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

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