I Still Remember the Last Time You Held My Hand

What happens when a man/father/husband flails between denial, anger, bargaining, and depression, but never reaches acceptance? What happens when a grief is too great? David Giver’s, I Still Remember the Last Time You Held My Hand explores the unknowable grief that comes with the death of a child. The form of the book-its enjambment, flashback, and realism-mirrors the experience of anguish itself. Giver guides us through this foggy grief with his brave, honest words and difficult truths. Kristen Nelson, author of Write, Dad A dark, hypnotic meditation on a young man’s grief and alienation following a child’s death, I Still Remember the Last Time You Held My Hand is truly mesmerizing. Each line in this sustained lyric poem beats like blood through a broken heart. Maggie Cleveland, author of Atom Fish David Giver’s wry take on modern family life, lovelessness, and untimely death is understated, by turns ironic and funny, but ultimately devastating. The father is an anti-hero like Willy Loman or Kevin Spacey’s Lester Bernham in American Beauty: cynical and detached from his middle class American life. The strength of Giver’s writing lies in his deft movements between sentimentality, deadpan humor, and horror. I Still Remember the Last Time You Held My Hand is a strange and evocative little book. Kristen Stone, author of Domestication Handbook