Maggie O’Farrell is a gifted writer – and someone who has been quite lucky to evade death on multiple occasions. In this memoir, O’Farrell takes 17 incidents where she or her children come close death – through anaphylaxis, encephalitis, rash decisions made in youth or even later, as a parent. She explores how each occasion gave her insight into her own mortality, and what it meant for her as a person. When she wrote this book, she was around the age I am now, in her 40s with three children at various stages. She connects the stories, spread across her lifetime, with a thread that eventually gives you the outline of her life (with details dropped about her husband-to-be amidst stories about other beaus or break-ups scattered throughout her younger life).
Although my experiences are quite different from O’Farrell’s, I think we all have most likely had strange brushes with death. That moment at a New Year’s Eve party at Tipitina’s in New Orleans when things seemed to swirl dangerously out of control, or the time that our car was t-boned and thankfully kind strangers were present and able to help me pull my kids from the backseat (not a scratch, we were all fine, just shaken up), or the year that my daughter choked TWICE, once sending me running down the steps to find my phone to dial 911 while my husband stuck his finger in her throat to dislodge the piece of chocolate that had stuck there. A variation of these incidents likely resides within all of us – and it’s thrilling to read about O’Farrell’s own experiences in her deft writing.
Each story has its own unique feel – some are almost playful, reminders of how silly and daring we have been in our youth. Others are quite sad and told from the perspective of a parent, though humor is never far in O’Farrell’s writing (trigger warnings for miscarriage and some frightening situations involving children). Some are downright chilling, as the opening story, in which she relates the day that she encountered a would-be murderer while on a hike in the woods. Surely there are moments of exaggeration here or there, and yet, it’s not too difficult to imagine a world in which all of these things could happen to one person. Our lives are so very full, our hearts to insistent on beating, despite the odds, really. I’d recommend this book to anyone looking for a well written memoir of an ordinary, extraordinary life.
