If you judge a book by its cover, it may also be true you can choose a book by the blurbs on the back. In this case: Marilynne Robinson (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction), Alison Bechdel (recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Award), Andrew Solomon (winner of the National Book Award), and Andy Borowitz (winner of the first National Press Club award for humor). Schulz is a staff writer at The New Yorker and was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2016 for her article, “The Really Big One,” about seismic risk in the Pacific Northwest.
As the title suggests, the book balances the emotions of grief and discovery. She artfully discusses the etymology of the word “loss” and the word “and.” If you are a reader who reads for writing? This book is for you. There are passages I read, and read again. It’s the kind of book you want to take a highlighter to for future reference. Kathryn describes losing her father while finding the woman who became her wife. Extreme sorrow with the endorphins of new love. The kind of feelings we can relate to with words we never thought to use.
While there were many parts of the book I found moving, this section near the end reflects my favorite takeaway.
“This is all we have, this moment with the world. It will not last, because nothing lasts. Entropy, mortality, extinction: the entire plan of the universe consists of losing, and no matter how much we find along the way, life amounts to a reverse savings account in which we are eventually robbed of everything. Our dreams and plans and jobs and knees and backs and memories; the keys to the house, the keys to the car, the keys to the kingdom, the kingdom itself; sooner or later, all of it drifts into the Valley of Lost Things.”
This resonated with me in a way that reveals my age like the rings on the trunk of a tree. And paired with the final sentence in the book—“We are here to keep watch, not to keep”—it epitomizes what the work as a whole offers: a poetic view on grief I’ve never discovered with any other writer. It is a balm.
Schulz, Kathryn. Lost & Found: Reflections on Grief, Gratitude, and Happiness. Random House, 2022
