After reading Nuala O”Faolain’s memoir Are You Somebody? I shed a few tears:
- for the pain and the beauty in this little treasure of a book I found at Goodwill.
- for how it relates to me (we’re so egotistical aren’t we) and all women.
- for the memory of my mother, whose birthday is today.
- for my close friend’s mother’s dying, her funeral being today.
- for my ill health. My stomach hurts from some undiagnosed what?
- for my inability to settle my unruly thoughts, sort through them into a coherent view of my life and its relationships.
She tells her story with such honesty, power and frankness from a horrendous Irish childhood into her 50’s as she begins to deal with aging. This American edition includes her Afterwords – the letters and stories she received. She just needed to tell her story having no idea that the instant best seller it became meant so much to so many people, especially women.
I was ready to write to her too, but found I was too late. She died late in 2008. I’ll write here instead. Hope to be posting some short stories soon.
And I thought I was going to write something funny and smart. Next time. I’ll be back to my old optimistic self tomorrow.