Paul Matthews reviewed I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O'Farrell
Raw, honest and moving
4 stars
Some amazing life experiences here, many of which explain her incredible fiction writing.
Paperback, 304 pages
Published March 26, 2019 by Vintage.
An extraordinarily intimate memoir of the near death experiences that have made Maggie O'Farrell the woman and the writer she is today. A childhood illness she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. A terrifying encounter on a remote path. A mismanaged labour in an understaffed hospital. This is a memoir with a difference: seventeen encounters with Maggie at different ages, in different locations, reveal to us a whole life in a series of tense, visceral snapshots. It is a book to make you question yourself: what would you do if your life was in danger? How would you react? And what would you stand to lose?
Some amazing life experiences here, many of which explain her incredible fiction writing.