Description:
"In my seventies, I have discovered I am not who I thought I was--and never have been," writes Boston Globe columnist Donald Murray. Murray retired from his university teaching job at 62 and had a heart attack a few months later. This experience and the years of aging that followed led him to contemplate his "lives" by writing this memoir in his '70s. The title refers to the notion that a writer lives life twice: once in the moment, and again in "the greater reality of reflection afterwards." Murray shares snippets of memories. As a child, he suffered beatings from his father (a leather shaving strap), his mother (a bone hairbrush, wet so it would hurt more), and the school bully (fists). He recounts how he found solace in books, notebooks, and make-believe siblings. Throughout the book, we get glimpses of his life and the meanings or lessons he learned. His experience as an "animal of war"--a paratrooper and military policeman in World War II--taught him that "few of us who fought are ever discharged from our wars." He refers to the death of his 20-year-old daughter several times, and finally tells the whole story with as much pain as if it happened yesterday. He tells fond stories about his wife, Minnie Mae, only revealing toward the end the day-to-day reality of caring for a wife with Parkinson's. "We don't grow older in an even march but in sudden lurches," writes Murray. He doesn't fear his own death, but fears indignity and dependence. My Twice-Lived Life does more than let us tiptoe into the private life and thoughts of an excellent writer--it beckons us to examine our own. --Joan Price
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