We are never closer to life than when we brush up against the possibility of death.
I Am, I Am, I Am is Maggie O'Farrell's astonishing memoir of the near-death experiences that have punctuated and defined her life. The childhood illness that left her bedridden for a year, which she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. An encounter with a disturbed man on a remote path. And, most terrifying of all, an ongoing, daily struggle to protect her daughter - for whom this book was written - from a condition that leaves her unimaginably vulnerable to life's myriad dangers.
Seventeen discrete encounters with Maggie at different ages, in different locations, reveal a whole life in a series of tense, visceral snapshots. In taut prose that vibrates with electricity and restrained emotion, O'Farrell captures the perils running just beneath the surface, and illuminates the preciousness, beauty, and mysteries of life itself.
I Am, I Am, I Am is Maggie O'Farrell's astonishing memoir of the near-death experiences that have punctuated and defined her life. The childhood illness that left her bedridden for a year, which she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. An encounter with a disturbed man on a remote path. And, most terrifying of all, an ongoing, daily struggle to protect her daughter - for whom this book was written - from a condition that leaves her unimaginably vulnerable to life's myriad dangers.
Seventeen discrete encounters with Maggie at different ages, in different locations, reveal a whole life in a series of tense, visceral snapshots. In taut prose that vibrates with electricity and restrained emotion, O'Farrell captures the perils running just beneath the surface, and illuminates the preciousness, beauty, and mysteries of life itself.
Last year, I read one of Maggie O'Farrell's novels for the first time : Hamnet - and that was my best read of the year, the most memorable one, with *that* wonderfully inventive chapter and *that* sentence that I can't forget because I could relate so much to it - I still feel emotional just thinking about it.
Of course, I had to try another book. I happened upon this one at the library, with a subtitle that left me skeptical because hey, 17 brushed with death ? Yet I read it (devoured it) and gave it a 5 stars rating, something that may be a very biased and personal rating that wouldn't agree with everyone.
I discovered things about this autor that I didn't know. I never met her and never will, yet she feels as close to me as another myself, so to speak. I recognize myself in her, she feels like a kindred spirit even if we have very different lives. I love the way she thinks, I love her writing style to pieces, I love her love of life. I also loved this chapter about a miscarriage that left me in tears, so close was it to my own personal experience.
That's it, I will have to read each and every book she ever published. Game on.
You are reminding me to read Hamnet this year, and this memoir sounds riveting too.
ReplyDeletethanks for the great review. i love when i can relate to the author's writing so emotionally, like they wrote it for me. sounds like this might be what happened to you
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental
Wow, that is really great the way the author's writing resonated with you like that.
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