A Very Easy Death: A Memoir (Pantheon Modern Writers Series)

A wonderfully written piece that stares right at the death that will someday come for us all. An honest and beautiful insight into the author's mother and their relationship. You'll be moved and left thinking about what you have read. I recommend this to anyone who has a difficult relationship with their mothers.

an absolutely heartbreaking book that can also be relatable especially for women who have to care for older people in their lives. definitely not a good intro to beauvoir’s overall work, though, unfortunately.

When you face grief following the loss of a loved one, and you are a lifelong reader, you turn to literature. You seek books about grief, memoirs by writers who have been through it and documented this agony and pain. You discover a whole new world you knew nothing about. In this short piece, the legendary Simone del Beauvoir documents the short period of her mother's hospitalisation following a fall, the subsequent discovery of her having cancer, and how she and her sister, Poupette, dealt with their mother's slow wasting away. She writes with unashamed candour about her relationship with her mother throughout her life, revealing the often complex mother-daughter relationships, which, at the time of writing this, was not something talked about in public. The memoir is extremely difficult emotionally to read, and towards the middle it gets exhausting, when she details her mother's last weeks of life. But you read on, as these passages lead to her death, and some deep insights into the mother-daughter relationship. "I had grown very fond of this dying woman. As we talked in the half-darkness I assuaged an old unhappiness; I was renewing the dialogue that had been broken off during my adolescence and that our differences and our likenesses had never allowed us to take up again. And the early tenderness that I had thought dead for ever came to life again, since it had become possible for it to slip into simple words and actions."

Ms. B's heartfelt memoirs of, along with her sister, helping their suffering mother through to the inevitable end of life. This is among the 20th century's greatest writers in my mind; equally brilliant whether it be memoir, fiction, philosophy, Parisian society, you name it-- the pages come to life directly from the brilliantly lit mind of this awesome woman. I believe she is mostly thought of as a 'women's writer' but let this grumpy old man assure you, prospective reader, her writing is entirely relatable and beautiful whoever you may be.

Simone de Beauvoir writes beautifully, simply, clearly and yet with great insight concerning the experience of a daughter observing and participating in the death of her mother. The mother dies a completely natural death from natural causes which nonetheless seem from close up so absolutely unnatural and even unfair. What is death? What is the love one feels for a mother? What is the death of a loved one? What does it mean to survive it intact. De Beauvoir provides a compelling version of this scenario.

I am taking a class on death and this is one of the required readings. I found it well written and a fairly easy read since it's short, but even with the small size, it tends to drag on at times. My biggest disappointment is that I didn't really learn anything about the author. It's like she's holding us at arms-length the whole time.

A great quick read and insightful. Gives great insight into the mindset of the author.

I had never read any of De Beauvoir' s work before this one, though I certainly had heard of her pivotal Feminist work, "The Second Sex." This memoir us a painful, but necessary read which focuses on De Beauvoir' s painful experiences of watching her mother's decline and death. De Beauvoir' s writing us brutally frank as she describes her mother's death with devastating accuracy. Death is never pretty and De Beauvoir' s language is full of the ugliness of death, but gentle at the same time. A must-read for anyone who is going through the process of watching a family member die.

this book left me with a feeling of uncertainty, but not in a disturbing way, more like an excitement, it made me realize we are all dying and we have to do something with our brief moment of life

My brother gave this to me after my mother died. It helped me process her death. I’ve since brought this book as a gift for two people I know who lost their mothers.

What a powerful story, and familiar. One's personality changes with dementia & delirium. It is a shock to see these changes in a parent, and it is realistically portrayed and a timeless story.