In a Dark Wood: A Memoir – A Widower and New Father's Poignant Journey Through Loss, Guided by Dante and Family

When Joseph Luzzi lost his wife and almost his new borne daughter in a sudden accident his world fell apart. Using a topic he teaches in college, Dante's "Divine Comedy" he paralleled his search towards (for want of a better word) personal salvation. Along the way he discusses in unflinching terms his relationships with his family, his child, his past life, and how he has to look into his own soul to find what matters. And he writes well! I have heard the author speak in several online lectures, and he knows how to communicate. This is an intense read and can be personally disturbing, but ultimately it gives hope to all of us.

There are few books that stay with me after I have read the last word. In a Dark Wood is one of them that did. When I first discovered this book, I was skeptical. Mr. Luzzi is a Yale graduate and professor of Italian Studies at Bard College. I feared that his book was going to be a dry, academic study of Dante and Death. But my fears were unfounded. Except for a few passages that went on longer than I think they needed to, the book was down-to-earth and accessible. Like other reviewers, I found the non-chronological order jarring, but maybe that was the way Mr. Luzzi was thinking and reacting at that time in his life—with scattered memories of searing grief mixed with the joy that Dante’s Inferno, tennis, great literature and art brought to his life. His editor did not seem to find the shifts in time problematic enough to merit changing. But I personally would have preferred to have read the events in chronological order, being more interested in the journey of grief than the often long passages of academic reflection. But that’s just me. Mr. Luzzi’s memoir of grief was striking in its honesty and bold in its reflection of the emotional and physical needs of a man who has lost his partner to tragedy. At first I was put off by what Mr. Luzzi himself later describes as selfish, self-absorbed reactions to his horrendous loss. For me, the story got good during the last 50 pages or so when he began to reclaim his role as a father. The passages where he describes the hair-pulling, nerve-wracking moments when he and his new partner, Helena, had to endure the understandably frustrating tantrums of a toddler being uprooted from the only home she had known were poignant and heart wrenching. Any parent will relate to how difficult, yet how important, those moments are in a family’s life. Ultimately, Mr. Luzzi came to understand how important his daughter was to him, which is the cathartic point of healing for not only him, but his daughter as well. I highly recommend this book to all those who are grieving the loss of a loved one. As Mr. Luzzi came to understand, it was this incredibly difficult event in his life that finally led him back to the man he always wanted to be: a writer for the masses rather than the elite; a father and family man rather than a bachelor. I wish Mr. Luzzi and his family continued love and healing, strength which they can now pass onto others who are suffering loss and heartbreak in their own lives.

Super memoir by excellent writer who suffered almost unspeakable situation and how he emerged strengthened. Readers and Romantics will love it.

Sorry but I had to force myself to finish this book. I just had a difficult time relating to, and building up much empathy to Mr. Luzzi. Lucky for his daughter that she had loving grandmother and aunts & uncles. He had a responsibility to his daughter that he shirked off on his mother, which he acknowledged, but not without critiquing some of her parenting skills( i.e. nutrition, TV watching, etc)that he had issues with. Even though he was critical of some of her practices in parenting his daughter , he didn't step in (or up).to correct what he felt were his mother's failings. To me , he came off very narcissistic and self-centered. I get that he was in a bad place, had a horrible loss, and faced the reality of raising his daughter as a single parent, but women have been doing this forever, and many, with much less help than he had. Plus, financially he was doing much better than most.

On November 29, 2007 Joseph Luzzi began his journey through the wood. A professor at Bard well known for his inspirational teachings on Dante, all seemed right with his world. But then that world cracked asunder, as a security guard and two of his colleagues told him that his pregnant wife Katherine had been critically injured in a traffic accident. Luzzi became a father to his daughter Isabel, who was delivered by emergency C-section, and then 45 minutes later became a widower. He had the love and support of family and friends who helped him over the next months and years, and he also had Dante, the Italian poet best known for The Divine Comedy. Luzzi was already thoroughly familiar with the poet's works, but over the next four years he found new meaning and comfort within those beautiful cantos, written over five hundred years ago by another man who had suffered shattering bereavement and who lived in permanent exile from much that he loved and held most dear. Now Luzzi's memoir of those terrible yet wondrous years allows his readers to better understand the wisdom and love to be found within Dante's writings. In A Dark Wood is a moving reading experience. We have all suffered or will suffer great bereavement over the loss of those we loved, though relatively few will do so as suddenly as Luzzi. It may take us years to recover, and some of us may never do so completely. In A Dark Wood's record of Luzzi's experiences and how Dante helped him through it was of great value to me and surely will be to others. The story of Luzzi's slow journey out of the dark wood as he learned to be a father to his daughter and as he sought and finally found new love, again with Dante's words always at his side, was also comforting. I anticipate that In A Dark Wood will be a book I will want to keep near by and turn to when shadows draw near or when, as Luzzi has inspired me to do, I renew my own old friendship with Dante.

I watched a lecture by Professor Luzzi about Petrach, Boccacia and Dante. I very much enjoyed the lecture and looked him up on Google and found a Guardian article about this book and the death of his wife. I was completely shocked so looked on Amazon and bought this book for Kindle. The book overwhelmed me but was inspirational too. It is very well written, a searingly honest account of the author's life and how literature can offer comfort in very difficult times. I would highly recommend this book and I am looking forward to reading more of Professor Luzzi's work.

I liked the book when I read it, but remembered absolutely nothing about the book shortly thereafter.

Uneven. Not engrossing.

Several of the quotes I underlined, I will be using for my PhD thesis on grief literature. Adored this book and it would be a joy to see what the author does next