Almost There: The Onward Journey of a Dublin Woman is a 2003 memoir by Nuala O'Faolain. Her earlier books are her 1996 memoir,
Are You Somebody? The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman, and
My Dream of You, a 2001 novel. Because it's Friday and time for another Book Beginnings post, I looked over the books on my TBR shelves and chose this one based on the first lines I needed for this post. (I put back two other books with boring beginnings. Yes, I'm weird.)
"If I had been asked to report on middle age when I was halfway through my fifties, I would have said that it was too bleak to talk about. Much too bleak if you believed, as I passionately did, that your life has been a failure."
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFTC4XWORP0cnKAEHhiBlbs9n8182oVxI1QgqcUbwooM7cq1BUXFAcv4O6fwtesYdc3d9qo-Es0ik9CjlAhENJlpPJSidQ8E_EEwAAtDXgSYQ1K3NIFFwQXw4zRH6ODZVLjxX3OCcA54I/s200/book-beginnings.jpg)
For some, that bleak beginning -- in a chapter titled "The Low Point" in the second of two memoirs when I haven't read the first one -- would be enough to send them scurrying for another book. But no, I'm interested and want to continue.
If this is the low point, then things must get better. I became even more interested in reading about her life when I discovered she and I were both born in 1940.
If you want to play along, this meme is hosted by Katy at
A Few More Pages. Click
this link to see the beginnings of other people's books.
4 comments:
Start out bleak and work your way up, it's much better than the other way around!
I agree, Helen!
I'm reading it now. I recognize the same Irish angst in me. I'm enjoying the book very much.
I'm also part Irish, Colleen. Maybe that's why I'm getting into the book so well.
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