Grief Is for People

By: Sloane Crosley

Narrated by: Sloane Crosley

Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

"Crosley's fresh imagery and pithy one-liners are delivered with perfect timing."—AudioFile

This program is read by the author.

Disarmingly witty and poignant, Sloane Crosley’s memoir explores multiple kinds of loss following the death of her closest friend.

Grief Is for People is a deeply moving and surprisingly suspenseful portrait of friendship, and a book about loss packed with verve for life. Sloane Crosley is one of our most renowned observers of contemporary behavior, and now the pathos that has been ever present in her trademark wit is on full display. After the pain and confusion of losing her closest friend to suicide, Crosley looks for answers in friends, philosophy, and art, hoping for a framework more useful than the unavoidable stages of grief.

For most of her adult life, Sloane and Russell worked together and played together as they navigated the corridors of office life, the literary world, and the dramatic cultural shifts in New York City. One day, while Russell is still alive, Sloane’s apartment is broken into. Along with her most prized possessions, the thief makes off with her sense of security, leaving a mystery in its place.

When Russell dies exactly one month later, his suicide propels her on a wild quest to right the unrightable, to explore what constitutes family and possession as the city itself faces the staggering toll brought on by the pandemic.

Crosley’s search for truth is frank, darkly funny, and gilded with a resounding empathy. Upending the “grief memoir,” Grief Is for People is the category-defying story of the struggle to hold on to the past without being consumed by it. A modern elegy, it rises precisely to console and challenge our notions of mourning during these grief-stricken times.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

©2024 Sloane Crosley (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Is it wrong to say that a memoir about loss and grieving is fun to read? If so, I’m in trouble, because I enjoyed every word of this book. I also ached and suffered along with Crosley: Her portrait of mourning after the suicide of her best friend is gutting and deeply engaging."—Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief

"Potent and propulsive, a lyrical meditation on loss and what comes after. Grief Is for People is heartbreaking and wholly original."—Tara Westover, author of Educated

"I have come to rely on Sloane Crosley for her oyster knife humor, bourbon hot observation, and indelible portraits of how we live with each other. Grief Is For People is about how we live without the ones we love. Crosley brings her whole self to this memoir—her gifts, her flaws, her intellect, her wit and emotion. She loves hard, grieves hard, and writes with the beauty and urgency of a white hot star. I wish I didn’t 'get' this book as much as I do but Grief Is for People is the book I didn’t know I needed to read."—Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage

A Sharply written look At Loss +Yet Still So Funny

Great writing and amongst the best and maybe
First of any record looking back at NYC Covid
Experience

Spectacular

This book is about everything. I walked 15 miles “reading” it. Sloan’s voice is beautiful and yet not lulling. The prose leaps even in audio, and the small and large revelations are too numerous to list. It’s also funny and I cried twice standing still, earbuds in.

Beautiful

I binged the entire book and lost track of time until about 2am when the acknowledgements started.

Speechless.

My heart has turned over countless times reading this. I cannot recommend it enough. My soul devoured this book.

Heartfelt and Touches Your Soul

The prose is beautiful. Sloane knows how to broach such an incredibly tough subject with grace, truth, and reality. I would recommend this to everyone carrying grief.

intellectual and empathetic author

narration was perfect because it was from the author. often times it read like poetry.

Insight and Laughter

How can a book about loss be such a fun read. Love this author, her insights and observations are the best

A book about grieving that resonated. Finally.

Crosley’s cranky, intimate, funny book about the range and shapes of grief is like a sharp drill bit. She dives into pain and then releases you quickly with a funny reversal. As the book gets darker and she flirts with suicidal ideation, you want to hold onto her and not let her go. She doesn’t but her willingness to get close to the literal edge of grief, of letting go of all that has been lost after the suicide of a dear mentoring friend, is raw and believable. I needed this level of precision to deal with recent death of someone very close. I am grateful for it.

Disjointed and sharp

The wit of the author was biting and needed for this exploration of dealing with loss. But the story seemed jerky and really depressing. The protagonist just was not relatable or likeable. She seems so immature. I would not recommend this book.

Ick

The book is read by the author, who has a serious case of vocal fry, which is unpleasant to listen to. It’s about a well-off woman upset by the theft of valuable jewelry she inherited from a grandmother she didn’t like. She’s well-off enough that she couldn’t be bothered to insure the jewelry, but she could buy an antique chest to store it. Priorities. Boo hoo. If the jewelry theft weren’t traumatic enough, then her friend dies by suicide, and his death gives her material to exploit to fill out the remainder of the book. The idea that somehow the death of her best friend is comparable to a burglar stealing her jewelry is appalling. The whole thing is distasteful and tone-deaf.