74 Words: A Son's Very Late Attempt to Rewrite His Mother's Obituary
Apr 2027 · Zibby Books
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About this ebook
Bestselling author John Kenney writes a luminous, powerful memoir about the long tail of grief—the ways it hides, the ways it shapes us, and what it means, finally, to mourn someone fully, even if it takes half a lifetime to find the words.
When John Kenney’s mother died, the Boston Globe ran her obituary. It was just 74 words long. He was twelve years old, and no one explained grief to him. So he did what children do: he kept moving, kept growing, kept living, burying the loss somewhere deep and unexamined for nearly fifty years.
After writing his bestselling novel about an obituary writer, I See You’ve Called in Dead, Kenney couldn’t stop thinking about the impossibility of summing up a person’s life in that small format, in just 74 words. And once he started expanding his mother’s story, he couldn’t stop. 74 Words is a son’s reckoning with memory, the mother he lost, and the woman he never got a chance to know. It’s the story of a man who ultimately allows himself to grieve.
When John Kenney’s mother died, the Boston Globe ran her obituary. It was just 74 words long. He was twelve years old, and no one explained grief to him. So he did what children do: he kept moving, kept growing, kept living, burying the loss somewhere deep and unexamined for nearly fifty years.
After writing his bestselling novel about an obituary writer, I See You’ve Called in Dead, Kenney couldn’t stop thinking about the impossibility of summing up a person’s life in that small format, in just 74 words. And once he started expanding his mother’s story, he couldn’t stop. 74 Words is a son’s reckoning with memory, the mother he lost, and the woman he never got a chance to know. It’s the story of a man who ultimately allows himself to grieve.
Bestselling author John Kenney writes a luminous, powerful memoir about the long tail of grief—the ways it hides, the ways it shapes us, and what it means, finally, to mourn someone fully, even if it takes half a lifetime to find the words.
When John Kenney’s mother died, the Boston Globe ran he...
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About the author
John Kenney is the bestselling author of I See You’ve Called in Dead, as well as two novels and four books of poetry, including Talk to Me, Love Poems for Married People, Love Poems for People with Children, and Love Poems for Anxious People. His first novel, Truth In Advertising, won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. He is a longtime contributor to The New Yorker magazine’s Shouts & Murmurs column. He lives in Larchmont, New York, with his wife, Lissa, a therapist, and two children, whose names currently escape him.
John Kenney is the bestselling author of I See You’ve Called in Dead, as well as two novels and four books of poetry, including Talk to Me, Love Poems for Married People, Love Poems for People with Children, and Love Poems for Anxious People. His first novel, Truth In Advertising, won the Thurber...
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