Reviews with content warning for Medical trauma - I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death

This is a very unique way to share a life story. The first story in particular was quite chilling. Out of all of them, that will stay with me the longest. It’s insane how many times this woman almost died. Equally unlucky and lucky. I definitely found myself getting a little anxious at times. If you’re sensitive I would suggest reading tw before reading. Great read if you’re up for it!

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massivepizzacrust's review against another edition

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emotional fast-paced

4.0

I read this book over two days and I just couldn't put it down. It's a really fascinating idea, trying to tell the story of a life through close encounters with death. I found the writing really engrossing and approachable and I enjoyed how we got to understand the author's decisions in the initial anecdotes as the book progressed.

I'm not sure I really understand why the chapters were arranged the way they were. By the end of the book I didn't really have a sense that there was an overall arch to the book (past the connection between her childhood death experiences and her daughter's). I thought some of the stories brought more to the table than others - the stories centering on her pregnancies and her childhood were mostly beautiful, but the story with the mysterious man and the dog was confusing and weirdly half-confessional.

Reading about someone else's preoccupation with death was a relief to me. It's something that's been hard for me to deal with sometimes and this was a really different view on it. I don't think I'll be making any unprepared trips to remote countries any time soon though.

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pipss's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective tense slow-paced

4.0

Muito tenso...

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samcsmith's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective tense fast-paced

3.5

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cmbohn's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

3.25

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sshabein's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

After reading Hamnet (and absolutely loving it), I decided to check out Maggie O'Farrell's memoir from the library, and wow, what a book! She tells the stories of her life where she narrowly avoided death, and how those experiences shaped her. It isn't told chronologically, but in a way that definitely unfolds and flashes back in a really compelling way. Her writing is flush with description that never feels overwrought or superfluous.

Some of her brushes with death involve medical treatment, and my jaw quite literally dropped at what people, especially medical professionals, said to her during those times. From her childhood hospitalization from encephalitis to her many miscarriages after a difficult first birth, you'll be ready to fight a couple nurses and doctors ON SIGHT. That said, there is also the very moving moment where one mysterious medical person, about whom she never found out any information, really supported her when she needed it most. If you're a person who has medical trauma of any sort, you may want to check in with yourself before reading.

Between this book and Hamnet being among my favorites this year, I'm ready to delve further into her back catalog. I've had an ARC of Instructions for a Heatwave sitting around an embarrassingly long time, and I will definitely, finally read it.

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