Vigil.

• Author: Cusac, Anne-Marie
• Position: Review - Brief Article

I hesitated to list Alan Shapiro's Vigil (University of Chicago, 1997) among my favorite books of the year only because he is my former, much adored, writing teacher. But I have to mention this memoir, since it was the only book this year that I couldn't put down. I had intended simply to get a feel for the writing and come back to it later. Vigil seized me and didn't let go.

Vigil describes the death of Shapiro's sister, Beth, after a two-year battle with breast cancer. It is an elegiac book--celebratory and grieving. Shapiro lets us see his passionate sister and her rich life--a founding member of Students for a Democratic Society, later a less radical social activist, a lover of football, a teacher. He describes her marriage to an African American man, whom his father refused to recognize as her husband. We begin to understand the deep love between a brother and a sister who both have suffered distance from their parents. And, with Shapiro and the other family members who make their awkward, tender amends, we watch Beth die.

Shapiro is best known as a poet. I have long admired his poems for their refusal to lie. Reading them, I sometimes have the sense that their author is tempted to tell a falsehood, or catches himself in the process of telling one, then wrenches himself into honesty. Hie makes the same demands of his prose:

"Life is pitiless in its profound complexity, in its indifferent richness. Because my sister was dying, I wanted everyone to grieve. I wanted...