I enjoyed O'Farrell's most recent fiction novel, This Must be the Place, and picked up her memoir after hearing so many (correct) rave reviews. Her 'Seventeen Brushes with Death' are harrowing, lyrical, wrenching and also life affirming. So often she brought me to tears or heart pounding fear with the terrible hardships she's suffered and I had a GREAT DEAL of righteous anger on her behalf - seriously, her story about birthing her first child is rage inducing, and the treatment by the other children when she returned to school after a life threatening illness is just terrible. I also did some googling after reading (always the sign of a great book) and she didn't set out to make this for public consumption, but an account of her life for her daughter who suffers terribly from life threatening allergies. To show her that we are all suffering in some way, so close to death an any moment. She didn't even take an advance on the book, well only one pound for legal reasons, in the event she did not want to publish. It's just all around remarkable.
For more reviews and boksih musings visit http://www.bornandreadinchicago.com/
For more reviews and bookish musings visit http://www.bornandreadinchicago.com/