Jayson Greene

Jayson is the text’s only narrator. The book is a chronicle of his experiences and emotions, and he does not shy away from difficult confessions. The reader learns a great deal about him across the arc of the book: his deep love for Stacy, his complicated relationship with New York City, his a-religious past and attraction to mysticism, his trade as a writer and journalist, the importance of fatherhood to his sense of identity. As a memoir of grief, he especially explores the way the loss of Greta affects him personally. He proves to a be a complicated yet adept narrator, using his skills as a writer and storyteller to map a narrative of grief and loss into an exploration for greater meaning.

Greene regularly reflects on how grief is a mysterious force, affecting people in unique and surprising ways. Jayson writes that he is...