I am, I am, I am

The first time I thought about my parents from my parents’ perspective, and not from my perspective, that is, when I thought of them as the parents of me, as opposed to my parents, was when I read The Boy in the Moon, by Ian Brown. That book really shook me.

I just finished this other book, I Am, I Am, I Am, by Maggie O’Farrell, which I selected because I was looking for short and not depressing books by Irish authors (to read before my trip to Ireland in June). And a couple of the seventeen stories she tells, in there, really shook me, again, and made me think about my parents.

It’s an intriguing book, short, with some short stories and some longer ones, each one about a time when the author got really close to a possible death. I was surprised by the fact that she never got afraid of water after so many near-drowning experiences. And I was sad to read about her difficult childhood and her own daughter’s difficult life, too. These chapters reminded me of many sad moments of my own childhood.

I really like the author’s style, and the narrator was brilliant. I just realized that she is from Northern Ireland (the one attached to the UK), and I’m going to Ireland (the one attached to the EU) (do they use the Euro?), so now I’m going to look for books written by EU-Irish authors, haha! Any suggestions?