In the Unwalled City

I n the Unwalled City takes its title from Epicurus, whowrote: “Against other things it is possible to obtain security, but when itcomes to death, we human beings all live in an unwalled city.” This affectingbook—which weaves prose memoir with poetry—explores that feeling of being opento attack—in this case the pain of grief after Robert Cording’sthirty-one-year-old son Daniel died.   To borrow a phrase from C.S. Lewis,here is “a grief observed,” encompassing not only the big questions but