The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead

The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead

by David Shields (Author)

Synopsis

Mesmerized and somewhat unnerved by his 97-year-old father's vitality and optimism, David Shields undertakes an original investigation of our flesh-and-blood existence, our mortal being. Weaving together personal anecdote, biological fact, philosophical doubt, cultural criticism, and the wisdom of an eclectic range of writers and thinkers - from Lucretius to Woody Allen - Shields expertly renders both a hilarious family portrait and a truly resonant meditation on mortality.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 03 Mar 2011

ISBN 10: 0141049499
ISBN 13: 9780141049496

Media Reviews
So pure and wide in its implications that I think of it almost as a secular, unsentimental Kahlil Gibran: a textbook for the acceptance of our fate on earth -- Jonathan Lethem
Breathtaking . . . Shields had us laughing out loud, even in the face of death * Timeout, Chicago *
Mix equal parts of anatomy and autobiography, science and self-disclosure, physiology and family history; shake, stir, add dashes of miscellany, pinches of borrowed wisdom, simmer over a low-grade fever of mortality, and a terrible beauty of a book is born -- Thomas Lynch * Boston Globe *
Shields is a sharp-eyed, self-deprecating, at times hilarious writer * Wall Street Journal *
Author Bio
David Shields is the author of nine other books, including Reality Hunger and Black Planet, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His work has been translated into a dozen languages. www.davidshields.com