Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.
This week I’m featuring I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O’Farrell, one of the books I’m currently reading.
I chose this book because I love Maggie O’Farrell’s books and as soon as I read the description I knew I had to read it:
About the Book
I AM, I AM, I AM is Maggie O’Farrell’s electric and shocking memoir of the near-death experiences that have punctuated her life. The childhood illness she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. A terrifying encounter on a remote path. A mismanaged labour in an understaffed hospital.
This is a memoir with a difference: seventeen encounters with Maggie at different ages, in different locations, reveal to us a whole life in a series of tense, visceral snapshots. Spare, elegant and utterly candid, it is a book to make you question yourself. What would you do if your life was in danger? How would you react? And what would you stand to lose?
It begins:
Neck 1990
On the path ahead, stepping out from behind a boulder, a man appears.
This opening sentence drew me in immediately, knowing from the title and book description that this was not going to be a happy encounter – this is the ‘terrifying encounter on a remote path.’
~~~
Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice.
These are the rules:
- Grab a book, any book.
- Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
- Find any sentence (or a few, just don’t spoil it) that grabs you.
- Post it.
- Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda’s most recent Friday 56 post.
Pages 55-56:
Suddenly the plane is falling, dropping, plummeting, like a rock fallen from a cliff. The downward velocity is astonishing, the drag, the speed of it. It feels like the world’s most unpleasant fairground ride, like a dive into nothing, like being pulled by the ankles into the endless maw of the underworld. My ears and face bloom like petals of pain, the seatbelt cutting into my thighs as I am thrown upwards.
~~~
The title is taken from Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar:
I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.
What about you? Does it tempt you or would you stop reading?
Great opening and page 56. Sounds like a very interesting book. I loved her book ’The Hand That Held Mine.
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Sounds like a great read. She’s a good author. I love that first line!
Here’s my Friday post. Have a lovely weekend!
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Seventeen brushes with death? That’s a lot! And it sounds like a really interesting look at what it’s like to come that close to dying, Margaret. I think we all think about it, and this memoir sounds like a fascinating reflection on what it’s like to come close to death.
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I think this might be a little too scary for me. That bit from the airplane certainly was! Ha! I am not a comfortable person on a plane anyway. I’ll likely skip this one – I’m too much of a worrier. 😉
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I recently read and loved this book. I am a fan of this author, so it was no surprise that I would enjoy it. Thanks for sharing, and here’s mine:
“TRY NOT TO BREATHE”
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That intensely terrifying 56 was enough to make me want to read this book! Wow! Happy weekend!
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Sounds like an interesting story. I’ve never heard of the author. This week I am featuring a historical mystery – A Dangerous Duet by Karen Odden. Happy reading!
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That’s a lot of close calls. I’m curious about this book and a new author for me too.
My Friday 56 from Fairest
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Oh wow, I AM, I AM, I AM sounds like an interesting book. Enjoy your current read!
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A Memoir about death experiences? How unique is that? I will look for it. My book is called 1968 Do you remember that year?
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