6 hours
Published August 2017 by Knopf
Publisher’s Summary:
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.
My Thoughts:
It's been some time since I finished this book so I'm going to just stick with the notes I made about it when I finished it.
- This is a sequence of near and not-so-near misses. It's shocking how often O'Farrell has had brushes with death in some way. It started with that childhood illness and ends with her own daughter's medical condition. At 16 she jumps off a harbor wall; but, because of childhood encephalitis and an inability to sense where things are and her place among them, meant she was unable to surface on her own and had to be rescued. At 18, she went for a walk during a break from work and encountered a man who appeared to be waiting for her; she manages to get away but later finds out the man has killed another young girl. Later she is on a plane to Hong Kong that almost crashes and her description of what it was like in that cabin is vivid. The chapter on one of her many miscarriages is superb and heart wrenching.
- O'Farrell sometimes tells the experience in the third person, which makes it feel less like her own life and more like a story. But they are excellent stories and it's easy to accept them being less personal feeling.
- I'm a big fan of O'Farrell's fiction and her ability to make readers feel like they are part of the book. This book gave me the same feeling.
- Daisy Donovan's reading is excellent.
- Would I recommend it? Definitely. But that recommendation comes with a trigger warning. There are a lot of things here that might be upsetting to some readers.