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Jun 08, 2019Indoorcamping rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This is like enjoying your favorite grandma, sharing the adventures of her lifetime, adventures of which nobody will ever have again because the world is a different place and nobody takes risks like they used to, and wishing she was your age so you could hang around her forever. Diana Athill wrote this when she was 97, and I can't even imagine writing at 97, let alone being so lively still. The Alive Alive in the title is about something else - won't give it away - but she is twice as alive as me now and I'm just a baby in age comparison. Some people just live life so unencumbered by rules, peer and family pressure, inner voices screaming at you to be normal, and finance issues (which she had, but didn't fret or listen to like us regular humans do). It's so easy to get out of your head and into her writing, to become someone who lives life to the fullest, who enjoys opportunities that most of us never had, or would have said no to because, again, we're regular people and she is extraordinary. Even at 97, she is more alive than everyone in my life. Probably yours, too.