Holden after and before : Love Letter for a Son Lost to Overdose

ISBN: 038568407X
ISBN: 9780385684071
ISBN: 0385684088
ISBN: 9780385684088
Physical Description: 1 online resource (1 sound file) remote
Edition: Unabridged.
Publisher: New York : Doubleday Canada, 2022.

McGuire, Tara (author,, narrator.).

Summary: A mother's beautiful elegy to her son lost to overdose Holden After and Before is a moving meditation on grief in the same vein as Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk, a stunning book that traces Tara McGuire's excavation and documentation of the life path of her son, Holden, a graffiti artist who died of an accidental opioid overdose at the age of twenty-one. Beginning with Holden's death and leaping through time and space, McGuire employs fact, investigation, memory, fantasy, and even fabrication in her search for understanding--not only of her son's tragic death, but also of his beautiful life. She navigates and writes across the many blank spaces to form a story of discovery and humanity, examining themes of grief, pain, mental illness, trauma, creative expression, identity, and deep, unending love inside just one of the thousands of deaths that have occurred as a result of the opioid crisis. With poignant honesty and a heart laid bare, Holden After and Before is a beautiful and moving elegy to a son lost to overdose.