Take your mind back to early 2020, when there were only whispers of a mysterious virus in Wuhan. Coronavirus was something that was happening ‘out there’ on the other side of the world, not something to really worry about. I remember stickers where placed inside the bathroom stalls at my University advising people who had recently returned from certain regions in China to be cautious and wash their hands. I wonder if those stickers are still there, as I haven’t been in the office for well over a year now.
In March 2020 many parts of the world entered various forms of “lockdown”. In Life in Pieces. Thoughts from the year that changed us all writer Dawn O’Porter takes readers along on her lockdown journey, living in LA with her husband, her two kids, a dog and a cat. The book is a collection of her written reflections which first appeared on her patreon blog, and it is very comforting to read her thoughts a year later. For example, O’Porter worried about the development of a vaccine, and whether they would ever find one that worked. Thankfully, they did and I have received my first dose last week (and because of this excitement I forgot to post this post!)
COVID-19 has taken the lives of many people across the globe, and numerous people have been grieving behind closed doors. But these losses and deaths have not solely been COVID-19 deaths. O’Porter experienced a significant loss shortly before entering lockdown. Those familiar with Love Island UK will remember presenter Caroline Flack. Flack, a good friend of O’Porter, took her own live early 2020. O’Porter had been in the UK for the funeral and when she returned to LA to find herself in lockdown with her family and a big loss to deal with.
“This isn’t a book about Caroline, what happened to her and why. But to understand my emotional experiences of lockdown, you need to know how it began. I was grieving, and in a pretty terrible way. I quit Twitter. I refused to read the tabloids, or even listen to negativity. I wanted to be alone. I wanted to isolate (careful what you wish for). I wanted my life to be smaller (not that small, thanks COVID-19). ”
— Life in Pieces page 2
While any loss can be emotionally challenging, deaths by suicide can be particularly so. O’Porter shows the messiness of both lockdown live, home-schooling, taking care of ageing pets in addition to being bereft. Readers with children will probably recognize O’Porter’s journey, readers without children (like me) will probably be grateful they did not have to lockdown with small children and my heart goes out to everyone who is managing their household whilst also coping with loss.
COVID-19 has really shoved death in our faces, but in a way that has taken the people out of the picture. Therefore it is important that books like Life in Pieces exist, to show that people have been dying, and will be dying for now until eternity. That people will die of various causes, but most importantly, that there is always a story and a person behind a number. O’Porter reflects on grieving a death unrelated to COVID-19 in a time where every death appears to be a COVID death:
“The pandemic has been such a weird time to be sad about someone who didn’t die at the hand of coronavirus. The relentlessly terrible news took personal experience out of death. It became about numbers and predictions, and each and every case instilled fear in us all”
— Life in Pieces page 159
Life in Pieces is both sad and hilarious and truly depicts the rollercoaster that was 2020. Divided in twelve pieces, O’Porter touches on grief, raising boys in today’s world, racism, and a lot of food and drink (a LOT of drink, and weed gummy bears). While my highlighting death and dying in the book may make it sound ‘heavy’, it is one of the lighter books I have read this year, which speaks to O’Porter’s skill of combining seemingly mundane topics with deeper themes.
I would also recommend listing to Dawn O’Porters’s appearance on the IWeigh podcast hosted by Jameela Jamil.
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