The Specific Gravity of Grief

From Wired.com: Characterizing this book is in itself a bit of a challenge: It’s fiction, but it’s about a writer named Jay Lake who writes like the real Jay Lake and is also fighting cancer. In other words, it’s all but impossible to read Specific Gravity without taking into account that the story contains a large infusion of brutal first-hand reality. (The cover art maintains this blurring of fact and fiction, being a portrait of Lake himself shot by photographer Kyle Cassidy.) The book is an extremely human story told through images and recollections and lists and flashbacks, and honestly, because it’s not very long, to say more is redundant. You know it’s about cancer. You know it’s going to be tough. And you know it’s about things that matter. The Specific Gravity of Grief isn’t a long book, and it’s not a fun book or a kids’ book, and with its subject matter, it’s the sort of book that makes it difficult to say, “Hey, I really liked it!” even if you did. It’s a good and powerful read in both big ways and small ways, and I’m glad that Lake has both the skill and courage to write it in his unique voice.