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Title details for The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead by David Shields - Available

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

by David Shields
Don Leslie
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Mesmerized–at times unnerved–by his ninety-seven-year-old father’s nearly superhuman vitality and optimism, David Shields undertakes an investigation of the human physical condition. The result is this exhilarating audiobook: both a personal meditation on mortality and an exploration of flesh-and-blood existence from crib to oblivion–an exploration that paradoxically prompts a renewed and profound appreciation of life.
Shields begins with the facts of birth and childhood, expertly weaving in anecdotal information about himself and his father. As the book proceeds, he juxtaposes biological details with bits of philosophical speculation, cultural history and criticism, and quotations from a wide range of writers and thinkers–from Lucretius to Woody Allen–yielding a magical whole: the universal story of our bodily being, a tender and often hilarious portrait of one family.
An audiobook of extraordinary depth and resonance, THE THING ABOUT LIFE IS THAT ONE DAY YOU’LL BE DEAD will move listeners to contemplate the brevity and radiance of their own sojourn on earth and challenge them to rearrange their thinking.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 5, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781415947180
      • File size: 192190 KB
      • Duration: 06:40:23

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Shields's book gives numerous facts, statistics, and quotations about birth, the body, growth, and death, many of them interesting. But they only serve as entrées to his real object of fascination: himself, and his mostly uninteresting life. Don Leslie does an admirable job, reading expressively; varying the pace; and varying the tone of his deep, slightly gravelly voice to indicate different speakers, scenes, levels of intimacy. Only rarely does he bobble a pronunciation or pick the wrong tone. But even he can't make a silk purse out of this self-absorbed sow's ear, by turns pointless, embarrassing, or maddening. In the midst of yet another witless anecdote, Shields says, "Who cares? I do." Yes, but few others will. W.M. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 4, 2008
      Inspired by the immense vitality of his 90-something father, author Shields (Body Politic: The Great American Sports Machine) looks at the arc of a human life in order to come to terms with mortality. Organized into four stages of life-infancy and childhood, adolescence, adulthood and middle age, old age and death-Shields's short, snappy chapters are crafted from personal anecdotes (many featuring his wife and teenage daughter), literary-philosophical musing and enlightening scientific data, examining a wide range of human concerns relating to "the beauty and pathos in my body and his body and everybody else's body as well." Shields also visits historical and contemporary figures, from Sigmund Freud to John Ruskin and Woody Allen, for their thoughts on mortality; says Picasso, "One starts to get young at the age of sixty, and then it's too late." Shield's eclectic approach and personal voice makes this extended meditation on living and dying a pleasing and occasionally profound read.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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