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STOLEN: LOVE AND LOSS IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

by Elizabeth Jaeger

Review prepared by Florence Osmund

 

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The Hook

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In an insightful, honest, and heartfelt account of her and her family’s brush with COVID-19, Elizabeth Jaeger unfolds visceral details of her experience to which many people will be able to relate. Her emotional journey will leave readers with an intimate understanding of the pandemic and empathy for someone who knows the emotional cost of it.

 

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Plot Summary

 

Elizabeth is a writing professor at New Jersey’s Fairleigh Dickenson University when COVID-19 hits. During this time, she keeps a diary from which she chronicles how she and her family deal with the pandemic's bitter ramifications.

 

Shortly after everything shuts down across the country, Elizabeth’s parents return home from a South American cruise. They come down with COVID symptoms soon thereafter. Her father’s health quickly deteriorates, and he is admitted to the hospital. They are not allowed to see him in person, just via FaceTime. Distraught over his fate, she and her family live in a constant state of stress while they wait for his condition to change.

 

COVID has taken its toll on Elizabeth, who sees no end in sight—no end to the isolation caused by the disease, the forced remote learning for her son and others, the deaths, the grieving, the sorrow, and the unbearable pain. Feeling trapped by this insufferable set of circumstances, she cries every day, her only salvation being memories of how things used to be.

 

Assessment

 

The COVID-19 pandemic is recent enough for most people to remember. But unlike Elizabeth Jaeger, not everyone felt the pain, the helplessness from losing someone. Her memoir reminds us of the ravages of this disease, each chapter ending with a “snapshot rewind,” a snippet of the author’s previous life. While chronicling these memories likely helped her get through the aftermath, it also provides others with an understanding of COVID’s effect on mental health.

 

The book includes Jaeger’s strong opinions on how U.S. politics affected the outcome of the pandemic. She is not shy about naming politicians who did not listen to scientists and doctors and who she believes cared more about money than the health and safety of Americans, causing unnecessary loss of lives by their lack of early action.

 

The author does an exemplary job of weaving together a cohesive narrative from a jumble of pivotal emotions, experiences, influences, and memories during a time of extreme uncertainty. She includes vivid details of her once private emotional truths. While most people will have some degree of familiarity with her story, future generations will learn of the utter devastation that COVID-19 left in its wake.

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Rating

 

On a scale of 1 to 5, STOLEN: LOVE AND LOSS IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 is rated 4.5 by Direct Book Reviews.

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