I Am, I Am, I Am

I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have been meaning to read Maggie O'Farrell forever. All I knew going into this book was that it was a memoir. I should have read the subtitle: Seventeen Brushes with Death. I had no idea the topic matter or the candor that O'Farrell would use as she told of her seventeen brushes with death throughout her life. These brushes include the delivery of a child and miscarriages - topics that are on my mind all the time just six weeks before the birth of my second son.

O'Farrell's summation of these experiences is poignant, compelling, and both relatable to the reader and unique to her experiences. I'm still shaking my head a few weeks after reading her book - blown away by her honesty and the reality that our survival truly is a miracle. For if we stopped and thought about it, isn't amazing that we're alive and well? After all, I nearly drowned at eighteen months. As a grade school kid, a prompting led me to swerve my bike right before an unexpected car came around the bend. I was given incorrect medication which caused me to fall asleep at the wheel when I was in my first year of teaching. I woke up seconds before impact, but amazingly with enough time to wrench the steering wheel to the side. A few years later, I was less lucky and in an even worse car accident. And that's just the beginning....we all have stories like this - near misses, and yet we are blessed enough to live. O'Farrell helps capture that blessing while also covering the unsettling fear that can accompany the reality of our own mortality. I am deeply impressed by her writing and looking forward to reading more of O'Farrell's backlist.

Happy reading and happy living--