Donna K. (tomeworm) reviewed on 3/18/2008 + 52 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

"In 1996, a small Irish press approached Nuala O'Faolan, then a writer for The Irish Times, to publish a collection of her opinion columns. She offered to write an introduction to give the opinions a context...to explain the life experience that had shaped this Irish woman's views--and, convinced that none but a few diehard fans of the columns would ever see the book, she took the opportunity to interrogate herself, as fully and candidly as she could, as to what she had made of her life. But the introduction, the 'accidental memoir of a Dublin woman,' was discovered, and her book, 'Are You Somebody?' became an international bestseller. It launched a new life for its author at a time when she had long let go of expectations that anything could dislodge patterns of regret and solitude well fixed and too familiar.

"Suddenly, in midlife, there was the possi9blity of radical change. Whereas the memoir ended with its author reconciled to a peaceful if lonely future, now opportunities opened up, and there were thrilling choices to be made." This is her story of life after that point. It's a really great read, I thought and I would recommend it to anyone. You step right into her life and I think any of us who have lived a few years can recognize ourselves in parts of her life. Not to mention being in Ireland, which is a refreshing sidebar.

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