The subtitle of Edwards’ book—Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities—is a burden in itself, and suggests the kind of forced inspiration that bubbles forth in a seemingly inexhaustible stream from people like Dr. Phil, all of Dr. Phil’s relatives, those Chicken Soup guys and every other celebrity-of-the-moment.

Thankfully, readers will find in Edwards’ book the kind of useful, clear-eyed introspection that recalls Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s classic Gift from the Sea.

It’s not a book about former presidential candidate John Edwards’ much-ballyhooed affair with a predatory staffer—although it is that. It is not simply about Elizabeth Edwards’ lengthy battle with cancer, a disease she suspects will kill her—though it is certainly about that. It is not only about the 1996 death of the couple’s oldest son, Wade, in a freak car accident, though this still-grieving mother spends a great amount of time assessing that loss.

In this small and stunning book, Edwards examines all these heartbreaks as if she were turning over stones: she weighs them, tests their texture, then talks about how they felt when they struck her.

Edwards seems baffled still by the infidelity of her husband, with whom she seemed to have a lucky love (they are still together). After a dozen years, she is not at all reconciled to the absence of her beloved son, who was 16 when he died. She dreads her own death, but faces it squarely, and prepares.

In spare, elegant prose, Edwards reminds readers she cannot give them a road map to serenity amid life’s harshest trials. She seems to have precious little serenity of her own, only the willingness to endure. It’s a testament to her character that she does so.

Some reviews say Edwards is getting back at her faithless husband by publishing a book that catalogs his deception, then parading him, draped in shame, on Oprah. Maybe so. And if so, maybe she’s earned that right. If there is a dual purpose to, it does not detract from this book’s flinty beauty.

By Marjorie Preston

Marjorie is Managing Editor of Casino Connection Atlantic City.