Bookmarks Subscribers discussion

Making Toast: A Family Story by Roger Rosenblatt

Post your comments here.

I started reading this book today. Is it me or does it seem like lots of death in the summer book list.

I finished reading this today. It was a quick read. A bit boring after about a third of the way through. It seems like it should have been shorter, or longer with a story line. Instead it reads a bit like a memoir with stories from the present and past mixed in. We don't really get to know Amy. We mostly see how her family lives on after her death.

As with all stories of this fashion, I compare my own story of my husband's illness and death. The Solomons are lucky in that they have the grandparents who can drop everything and come to live with them. They also do not need to worry about money. Well, that was never brought up and Harris is a surgeon so my assumption is that they are doing well enough. Private pre-schools, music lessons, day trips to New York, visits with therapists are things that don't happen to most families after a parent has died. Death comes to all, but some people are better equipped, at least financially, than other.

I had not heard of Roger Rosenblatt before. I was a little put off by his name dropping. And I am not sure if his Boppo the Great anthem is said with tongue in cheek or not.

My Rating: ★★★★

It's every parents nightmare, to have a child die before them. Roger Rosenblatt shares his thoughts and experiences with us after the unexpected death of his daughter, a doctor, wife and mother of three young children. His story chronicles how he and his wife moved in with his son-in-law and grandchildren, and began the process of grieving and putting their life back together.

This memoir was poignant in its simplicity. Even the smallest and most ordinary of tasks take on special meaning. Although life is altered after the death of a loved one, it goes on, through the mundane acts of getting dressed in the morning, driving a child to school, or making toast for breakfast.

Sharon, I thought Rosenblatt's Boppo the Great anthem was definitely tongue in cheek. He mentioned repeatedly how much responsibility his wife took on in helping to raise the children from sun up til sundown, and by contrast he had only mastered making the toast. By his own admission, he was normally the last one his grandchildren sought out. I think Boppo the Great was his way of trying entertain and relate to his grandchildren.

There was quite a bit of namedropping in the book. I wasn't put off by it; instead I came away with the feeling that despite who we know, the rich and famous, death touches us all.