epilogue

Author: Juliet Patterson

Publisher: Spout Press (2016)

In epilogue Juliet Patterson performs an act of intimate illumination as she narrates with poetic and visionary clarity the experience of her father's death by suicide and her subsequent inquiry into his actions. Like the best work done at soul level, Patterson's awareness that the focus of her quest is unattainable only makes it more necessary and more transformative. epilogue explores the paradoxes inherent in mourning—its way of demanding privacy but also communion, interiority but also expression—with a stunning and wise lyricism. As Patterson investigates her experience of grief for meaning, her insights surface as moments of intense compassion available to us all.