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emilybh's review against another edition
‘The real events that disrupt the everyday, even sometimes cataclysmically, so that it seems that nothing can ever be the same again, erode, weather, change the underlying landscape, but no matter how transparent the platform you stand on, showing nothing but the void below, it hadn’t yet actually broken and thrown me to the depths.’
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Jenny Diski’s dark, honest and funny essays examine the pain of ill-health, preparing to die and coming to terms with the debt we owe those close to us. I loved her dry tone and interrogation of her tricky childhood and adolescence, the domestic conflict she encountered and contributed to whilst living in Doris Lessing's house, contrasted with the warmth of her co-habitation with the Poet. The final poem and Afterword written by her daughter were moving.
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Jenny Diski’s dark, honest and funny essays examine the pain of ill-health, preparing to die and coming to terms with the debt we owe those close to us. I loved her dry tone and interrogation of her tricky childhood and adolescence, the domestic conflict she encountered and contributed to whilst living in Doris Lessing's house, contrasted with the warmth of her co-habitation with the Poet. The final poem and Afterword written by her daughter were moving.
tildafin16's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
First Jenny Diski I’ve read, I immediately loved her voice and simple prose for complex , dark issues. Will seek out her earlier work
eleanormarierose's review against another edition
3.0
- author who was taken in by another author as a child
- diagnosed with cancer
- a 'cancer diary' but not?
- honest, funny
- author died week after publication
- preferred the first half
- would have liked more chapters/split up
- diagnosed with cancer
- a 'cancer diary' but not?
- honest, funny
- author died week after publication
- preferred the first half
- would have liked more chapters/split up
schopflin's review against another edition
4.0
Having read the original LRB articles, I wasn't expecting the impression this book made on me. The writing is brilliant and the honesty powerful, especially in the memoirs of her teens and twenties. I enjoyed less the ponderings about death, illness and existence, although more than I have from other writers. The topping and tailing by Anne Enright, by her partner and her daughter are great additions.