A Broken Heart Still Beats: When Your Child Dies
The grief felt by a parent following a child's death is the theme of this book, edited by two mothers who share that unfortunate experience.  As a cathartic exercise, McCracken and Semel assembled articles and excerpts-some fiction, some nonfiction-that featured the death of a child.  They have also written a brief introduction to each chapter, describing a different stage of the grieving process and how it affected their lives.The book contains a remarkable miscellany of emotionally charged literature by the likes of Melville, Frost, Shelley, Irving and Shakespeare.  Each selection describes bereavement in a different way, lending credence to the editors' belief that no one can claim to understand another person's particular loss or its effects.  The excerpted literature is of impeccable quality, as are the sentiments behind each piece.  What's more, the editors' introductions to each chapter convey intense emotion sans the maudlin trappings that characterize many a self-help book.  This book does not seek to instruct the reader on how to cope with grief, it merely shares the eloquence of those who have been there before.  Highly recommended. --Today's Librarian, September 1, 1999