This post is a review of Grief Is For People. By Sloane Crosley. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 191 pp. $27.

On July 27, 2019, Russell Perrault, Executive Director of Publicity at Vintage Books, Alfred A. Knopf Inc., took his dogs for a walk, checked on his beloved chickens, returned to his farmhouse in Connecticut, watched some television, walked to the barn and took his own life. According to Sloane Crosley, who worked for Perrault at Vintage Books and considered him her closest friend, the 52-year-old man had no history of depression. A year earlier, she recalls, after she had broken up with a boyfriend and a colleague at Knopf had died by suicide, Russell had texted her: “Let’s make a deal. No killing yourself without my approval first. I’ll do the same.” Crosley knew Russell had faced allegations of sexual harassment, was disillusioned with office life, and may have become estranged from his partner. She could identify no evidence, however, that he had given up on life.

In Grief Is For........

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