what does it mean to mourn today in a culture that has largely set aside rituals that acknowledge grief after her mother died of cancer at the age of fiftyfive meghan orourke found that nothing had prepared her for the intensity of her sorrow in the first anguished days she began to create a record of her interior life as a mourner trying to capture the paradox of griefits monumental agony and microscopic intimaciesan endeavor that ultimately bloomed into a profound look at how caring for her mother during her illness changed and strengthened their bond orourkes story is one of a life gone off the rails of how watching her mothers illnessand separating from her husbandleft her fundamentally altered but it is also one of resilience as she observes her family persevere even in the face of immeasurable loss with lyricism and unswerving candor the long goodbye conveys the fleeting moments of joy that make up a life and the way memory can lead us out of the jagged darkness of loss effortlessly blending research and reflection the personal and the universal it is not only an exceptional memoir but a necessary one