Book Review: How to Love the Empty Air by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz

How to Love the Empty Air by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz is a powerful and touching look into grief.

As Aptowicz grabs hold of the success she has worked so hard for, her world is rocked by the sudden death of her mother. In the year that follows, the author battles the overwhelming grief through her writing, sharing these intimate glimpses into her life with readers.

Having lost my mother when I was just a teenager, I was drawn to How to Love the Empty Air. While grief is a very personal thing, there is comfort in the understanding of someone else who has experienced the same tragedy. Apotowicz holds nothing back in this collection. She shares her joys, her sorrows, and her pain in all its rawness. You laugh. You cry. You want to hug her because she feels so close as she stumbles around searching for that new normal that may never feel normal at all. Then she reaches that major milestone--one year after the death of her mother. Not enough time has passed to eliminate the heaviness of the loss, but by the end we can see some joy, a glimmer of happiness and new beginnings.

This is definitely one of my favorite collections. It is the seventh by Aptowicz. I'll be searching out more. If you want deep, meaningful, poetry that tugs at your heartstrings, How to Love the Empty Air is a collection worth reading.

Paperback: 100 pages
Publisher: Write Bloody Publishing (March 20, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1938912802
ISBN-13: 978-1938912801


I received a copy of this book from the author. This review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.

Mailbox Monday - March 19

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles, and humongous wish lists.

Here it is Monday again. I have meetings all morning into the afternoon, so I might be late getting to read your blogs.

Last week I signed up another new buyer and went house hunting with her. I didn't get as much accomplished as I wanted to, but I got through the important stuff.

In my mailbox I found, How to Love the Empty Air  by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz. I'm reviewing it for her virtual book tour next month.

Vulnerable, beautiful and ultimately life-affirming, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz’s work reaches new heights in her revelatory seventh collection of poetry. Continuing in her tradition of engaging autobiographical work, How to Love the Empty Air explores what happens when the impossible becomes real―for better and for worse. Aptowicz’s journey to find happiness and home in her ever-shifting world sees her struggling in cities throughout America. When her luck changes―in love and in life―she can’t help but “tell the sun / tell the fields / tell the huge Texas sky…. / tell myself again and again until I believe it.” However, the upward trajectory of this new life is rocked by the sudden death of the poet’s mother. In the year that follows, Aptowicz battles the silencing power of grief with intimate poems burnished by loss and a hard-won humor, capturing the dance that all newly grieving must do between everyday living and the desire “to elope with this grief, / who is not your enemy, / this grief who maybe now is your best friend. / This grief, who is your husband, / the thing you curl into every night, / falling asleep in its arms…” As in her award-winning The Year of No Mistakes, Aptowicz counts her losses and her blessings, knowing how despite it all, life “ripples boundless, like electricity, like joy / like... laughter, irresistible and bright, / an impossible thing to contain.”

HOW TO LOVE THE EMPTY AIR brilliantly illuminates why we read poetry, and why poetry is needed. We read it to see another person’s unique experience, but also to help us clarify our own. And we read it to reassure ourselves that what we experience and feel it part of a larger human drama that we all share. Cristin reminds readers how huge, life-shifting events are totally unique and personal—and yet, they are also universal.

What did your mailbox hold for you last week? I hope you enjoy the days ahead.