In 1996, a small Irish press approached Nuala O'Faolain to publish a collection of her opinion columns from the Irish Times. She offered to write an introduction to explain the life experience that had shaped this Irish woman's views. Convinced that none but a few diehard fans of the columns would ever see the book, she took the opportunity to interrogate herself as to what she had made of her life.
But the introduction, the "accidental memoir of a Dublin woman," was discovered, and 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 new could dislodge patterns of regret and solitude, well fixed. Suddenly, in midlife, there was the possibility of radical change.
Almost There begins at that moment when O'Faolain's life began to change. It tells the story of a life in subtle, radical, and unforeseen renewal. It is a tale of good fortune chasing out bad -- of an accidental harvest of happiness. But it is also a provocative examination of one woman's experience of the "crucible of middle age" -- a time of life that faces in two directions, that forges the shape of the years to come, and also clarifies and solidifies one's relationships to friends and lovers (past and present), family and self.
Intelligent, thoughtful, hilarious, fierce, moving, generous, and full of surprises, Almost There is a crystalline reflection of a singular character, utterly engaged in life.
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"Dublin journalist Nuala O'Faolain thought she was writing the preface to a collection of her Irish Times columns when she produced Are You Somebody?, a memoir that was a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. One of nine children of a famous philandering father and a cold, disappointed and ultimately alcoholic mother, O'Faolain's memoir detailed her growing up in 1940s and 1950s Ireland, enduring a strict but narrow education by abusive nuns and a country smothered by an rigid patriarchy directed by the church. O'Faolain absorbed the ethos of her nation -- women must marry, have children and serve -- but managed to avoid actually fulfilling those expectations. Instead she became a university professor, a broadcaster for the BBC and RTE, and finally the most popular opinion columnist in the land. Almost There picks up the story, beginning with the success of her memoir and all that followed -- aclaim, wealth, more books -- and what didn't -- finding a loving partner to share that success. She hasn't overcome her anger at her parents, and as she moves into middle age struggles to find the key to contentment as a single woman. Her answer is friendship, travel, art, animals and the natural world. For readers who enjoyed Are You Somebody?, this memoir will be a worthwhile read. For those who missed the first installment, I suggest starting there."
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Elizabeth (4 out of 5 stars)