The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying. The New York Times bestseller by poet Nina Riggs, mother of two young sons and the direct descendant of Ralph Waldo Emerson, is “a stunningheart-rending meditation on lifeIt is this year’s When Breath Becomes Air” (The Washington Post). We are breathless but we love the days. The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying by Nina Riggs Book Review The cancer diagnosis is usually the first terrible moment for many people to be followed. In 2015 poet and writer Nina Riggs was diagnosed with breast cancer, and it metastasised later that year. She was thirty-eight years old, married to the love. With humor and honesty, The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying chronicles Riggs's diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer and the moments shared with her school-age sons and her. Nina Ellen Riggs (March 29, 1977 – February 26, 2017) was an American writer and poet. Her best known work is her memoir, The Bright Hour, detailing her journey as a mother with incurable breast cancer. It was published shortly after her death. The book received critical acclaim. Riggs also contributed an article to New York Times series Modern Love.
“The beautiful, vibrant, living world goes on.” Nina Riggs, who died in February, realized this truth during a mundane moment: While teaching her son to ride his bike, she stumbles and releases him. As Benny rides forward, he shouts behind him, checking on his mother.
It’s a simple moment, but to Riggs, whose triple negative breast cancer had been deemed terminal, it encapsulated so much more. When she was diagnosed at age 37, doctors expected her disease to be curable. It was one small spot of cancer, that was all. But it metastasized and, by age 38, Riggs knew the disease would kill her.
Riggs’ husband, John, longs for a return to normalcy. “I have to love these days in the same way I love any other. There might not be a ‘normal’ from here on out,” she responds. “These days are days. We choose how we hold them.”
Nina Riggs Blog
Nina Riggs The Bright Hours
As she endures chemotherapy and radiation, Riggs faces those days with a clear-eyed determination to fully live. Riggs, herself a poet, examines her impending death through her own lyrical perspective, informed by the writings of her great-great-great-grandfather, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and French philosopher Michel Eyquem de Montaigne.
Part of living, though, is death. Riggs must face it even before her own cancer is deemed terminal: Her mother’s multiple myeloma is fatal. The family concludes her mother’s funeral with an open-ended moment of silence, which Riggs struggles with. Shouldn’t they sound a gong or otherwise give those gathered permission to leave?
No, her brother says. “It’s about honoring the unknowing and the awkwardness and the mystery of dying. It’s unsettling—and that’s okay.”
Through this warmhearted memoir, Riggs writes her way to accepting her own death and the uncertainty that follows it. The Bright Hour is an introspective, well-considered tribute to life. As Riggs’ famed ancestor Emerson writes, “That is morning; to cease for a bright hour to be a prisoner of this sickly body and to become as large as the World.”
This article was originally published in the June 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.
| Born | March 29, 1977 |
|---|---|
| Died | February 26, 2017 (aged 39) |
| Occupation | Writer, poet |
| Spouse(s) | John Duberstein |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | https://ninariggs.com/ |
Nina Ellen Riggs (March 29, 1977 – February 26, 2017)[1] was an American writer and poet. Her best known work is her memoir, The Bright Hour,[2] detailing her journey as a mother with incurable breast cancer. It was published shortly after her death. The book received critical acclaim.[3][4][5][6] Riggs also contributed an article to New York Times series Modern Love.[7]
Riggs was born in San Francisco, California.[1] She was the great-great-great granddaughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson.[4] She received a bachelor's degree in creative writing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master of fine arts degree in poetry from UNC at Greensboro.[1]
Riggs was married to John Duberstein, an attorney with whom she had two sons. They lived in Greensboro, North Carolina.[1]
Bibliography[edit]
The Bright Hour (2017)[edit]
Nina Riggs Obituary
The Bright Hour was published June 6, 2017 by Simon & Schuster.[8] The book was a New York Times Best Seller and received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal.[8] It was also selected as one of the best books of 2017 by [8]
The book was well-received:
- 2017 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Memoir & Autobiography [9]
- Best Books of 2017 by The Washington Post, O Magazine, NPR, Bitch, and Medium[8]
- Most Anticipated Summer Reading Selection by The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Glamour, The Seattle Times, Vulture, InStyle, Bookpage, Bookriot, Real Simple, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution[8]
Lucky, Lucky (2009)[edit]
Lucky, Lucky, a poetry chapbook, was published in 2009 by Finishing Line Press.[10]
References[edit]
- ^ abcd'Riggs, Nina Ellen'. Greensboro News & Record. March 5, 2017.
- ^Riggs, Nina (2017). The Bright Hour. Simon and Schuster. p. 320. ISBN9781501169359. Retrieved 13 December 2017.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
- ^Krug, Nora (June 1, 2017). 'A dying mother's memoir is this year's 'When Breath Becomes Air''. The Washington Post.
- ^ abCollins-Hughes, Laura (June 1, 2017). 'A young mother's unsentimental memoir of her last days'. Boston Globe.
- ^Newman, Judith (June 16, 2017). 'I'm Dying Up Here: Books on How to Grieve and How to Die'. New York Times.
- ^McCarthy, Matt (June 5, 2017). 'Nina Riggs' moving cancer memoir shines 'Bright''. USA Today.
- ^Riggs, Nina (September 23, 2016). 'When a Couch Is More Than a Couch'. New York Times.
- ^ abcdeRiggs, Nina (2017-06-06). The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying. Simon and Schuster. ISBN978-1-5011-6935-9.
- ^'The Bright Hour'. Goodreads. Retrieved 2021-04-19.
- ^Riggs, Nina (2009). Lucky, Lucky. Finishing Line Press. ISBN978-1-59924-401-3.