Never Stop Dancing. A memoir on male grief

“Be present,” “cherish each day,” “always say I love you.” John Robinette lived those words. Or so he thought. Then his wife, Amy, was killed instantly in a pedestrian accident. 

John’s world shattered, and he began the gruelling task of parenting two young boys in a house filled with vibrant, bittersweet memories. As the grief closed in around him, John’s close friend, author Robert Jacoby, saw John struggling and proposed an unusual idea: to interview him over the course of the first year after Amy’s death. Robert’s hope was to meet John directly in his experience of sorrow, explore his grief with him, and discover what lessons might be learned. 

Born of a year’s worth of candid interviews, Never Stop Dancing avoids clichéd takeaways about grief and healing to chart a deeper, thornier examination of loss and regret. Robert and John are transformed through their shared experience, too, emerging strengthened and with an abiding male friendship that cuts against the grain of pop-culture trends of quick fixes and easy answers. This memoir-in-conversation provides hard-won reassurances that one can and does go on after loss.

Duffy’s Thought’s on Never Stop Dancing: A memoir on mail grief

I get approached to read and review all kinds of books and it always amazes me when a unique read comes along, after all, with the hundreds of books I’ve read, you’d think that I’d have read most synopsis before. But, not this one.

Robert Jacoby spent 12 months interviewing his friend John Robinette during one the most traumatic, heartbreaking and deeply personal times of his life. When his wife was killed instantly in a car accident.

Robert spends time with his friend, giving him space when he needs it, and pushing points ever so gently to gain an insight into his grief and how he mentally, physically and spiritually began to put the pieces of his broken family back together. John talks in great detail about that gut-wrenching phone call he received from work and those initial moments of shock and overwhelming grief when he found out that his wife had died. You almost feel that you shouldn’t be reading about such a personal and sad time in someone’s life, but on the flip side, I found it deeply moving and interesting to see what exactly happens in those life-changing moments, so that I might understand.

John’s love for his wife is not reflected through rose coloured glasses or with cliches and paired with John’s accurate and careful transcripts Never Stop Dancing forms a respectfully delivered memoir.

Never stop dancing is an important read for any male going through deep personal grief to demonstrate that ‘this too shall pass’. That with therapy, faith, family and support, anyone who has lost a loved one or has a close friend going through a difficult period of loss can recover, eventually. Never Stop Dancing will help those to understand male grief and what is going inside; being quiet isn’t ignorance and asking people to leave doesn’t mean they are rude, in fact, quite the opposite.

A tender book which isn’t afraid to share the intricacies of platonic male friendship without the tough guy charade social norms put on us all.

Grab your copy of Never Stop Dancing today.