What will you remember if you live to be 100?
Diana Athill charmed readers with her prize-winning memoir Somewhere
Towards the End, which transformed her into an unexpected literary
star. Now, on the eve of her ninety-eighth birthday, Athill has written
a sequel every bit as unsentimental, candid, and beguiling as her most
beloved work.
Writing from her cozy room in Highgate, London, Diana begins to reflect
on the things that matter after a lifetime of remarkable experiences,
and the memories that have risen to the surface and sustain her in her
very old age.
"My two valuable lessons are: avoid romanticism and abhor
possessiveness," she writes. In warm, engaging prose she describes the
bucolic pleasures of her grandmother's garden and the wonders of
traveling as a young woman in Europe after the end of the Second World
War. As her vivid, textured memories range across the decades, she
relates with unflinching candor her harrowing experience as an expectant
mother in her forties and crafts unforgettable portraits of friends,
writers, and lovers.
A pure joy to read, Alive, Alive Oh! sparkles with wise and often very
funny reflections on the condition of being old. Athill reminds us of
the joy and richness of every stage of life--and what it means to live
life fully, without regrets.
