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All of This

A Memoir of Death and Desire

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All of This

By: Rebecca Woolf
Narrated by: Rebecca Woolf
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About this listen

“Beautifully written, complex, provocative, painful, genuine...an unforgettable memoir.”—ROXANE GAY

“Wonderfully lyrical and uncomfortably honest in a way that is so rare, yet so needed.”—JENNY LAWSON

“Disturbing and profound, this intimate book also reveals the sometimes-labyrinthine nature of the bonds that unite people in love...A provocative and memorable work.”—Kirkus Reviews

After years of struggling in a tumultuous marriage, writer Rebecca Woolf was finally ready to leave her husband. Two weeks after telling him she wanted a divorce, he was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. Four months later, at the age of forty-four, he died.

In All of This, Woolf chronicles the months before her husband’s death—and her rebirth after he was gone. With rigorous honesty and incredible awareness, she reflects on the end of her marriage: how her husband’s illness finally gave her the space to make peace with his humanity and her own.

Stunning, compelling, and brilliantly nuanced, All of This is one woman’s story of embracing the complexities of grief without shame—as a mother, a widow, and a sexual being—and emerging on the other side of a relationship with gratitude and relief.

©2022 Rebecca Woolf (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers Grief & Loss Personal Development Relationships Women Marriage Memoir Divorce Grief
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As a casual follower of Rebecca Woolf's blog, I thought I knew what this book would be about. I was wrong.

No one's marriage is perfect and no one is innocent. Death is messy, grief is terrifying, love is easy and people are flawed.

The power in this story is honesty. The best version of yourself is the one who has learnt from mistakes and owns up to all of it, standing there, accepting that people will see you differently now.

This is a woman unpacking being a widow of a man she wanted to divorce. The unpacking of love and respect and disregard and selfishness and being ok and being hurt and having to hold it all together because you're the only one who will.

breathtakingly honest

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“Thank you Hal. I couldn’t have written this book without you”

Oooof - an out loud exclamation came from me when I finished this book, like someone had punched me in the stomach.

It has the perfect ending.

All of it is perfect.

It is raw, loving hideous, powerful, sad, joyous, brave, heartbreaking, soulful - but above all - it is HONEST…

Rebecca opens the curtains on the relationship and dynamics of she and her husband, their marriage, and their Family.

Whilst (as a parent) some of the honesty concerns me, as to how her children will react and feel when they inevitably read this memoir; but for the sake of such beautiful raw craft, I’ve chosen not to dwell on that.
They will make peace with their Life when they are of an age to understand that we are all damaged and fallible…

I will dive back into this book again.
Soon.
I feel like it will be a book that I revisit often.

Such a very powerful story.

Thank YOU Rebecca, and yes - thank you Hal.

FocusOnSimple🌿

Thank You - both of you.

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I loved it's truths, it's rawness & it's honesty. Listened to it in 2 days ..... had me from the beginning & didn't let go.

The rawness of this memoir

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This is the best book I have read (listened to!) in years. Refreshingly honest and raw. I loved it.

A must read

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The premise of this memoir was fascinating: woman who 'hates' (her words) her husband is blindsided by his sudden plunge into terminal cancer before she has a chance to leave him. I bought the audio book on the strength of this complex entanglement, but could not force myself through it on two counts (and I am genuinely wondering if the first is internalised misogyny or a deeply enculturated aversion to certain US accents that seem so 'loaded' with 'American exceptionalism' ...). Firstly, the drawling valley-girl accent. I apologise, because I'm sure that's a classist insult (I'm writing from a different continent, but have seen enough US TV ...). And secondly, the naval-gazing prose. Put together, the narrative simply felt so overly self-indulgent that I had to switch off. People die and relationships are complex. In the hands of a more mature or less egocentric writer, this could have been wonderful. Sorry ... but I'm sure that it will still rate highly and be loved by many. Alas, you can't win them all.

Struggled

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