Every third thought : on life, death and the endgame / Robert McCrum.

  • McCrum, Robert
Date:
2017
  • Books

About this work

Description

"In 1995, at the age of forty two, Robert McCrum suffered a dramatic and near-fatal stroke, the subject of his acclaimed memoir My Year Off. Ever since that life-changing event, McCrum has lived in the shadow of death, unavoidably aware of his own mortality. And now, twenty-one years on, he is noticing a change: his friends are joining him there. Death has become his contemporaries' every third thought. The question is no longer 'who am I?' but 'how long have I got?' and 'what happens next?' With the words of McCrum's favourite authors as travel companions, Every Third Thought, takes us on a journey through a year and towards death itself. As he acknowledges his own and his friends' ageing, McCrum confronts an existential question: in a world where we have learnt to live well at all costs, can we make peace with what Freud calls 'the necessity of dying'? Searching for answers leads him to others for advice and wisdom, and Every Third Thought is populated by the voices of brain surgeons, psychologists, cancer patients, hospice workers, writers and poets. Witty, lucid and provocative, Every Third Thought is an enthralling exploration of what it means to approach the 'end game', and begin to recognize, perhaps reluctantly, that we are not immortal. Deeply personal and yet always universal, this is a book for anyone who finds themselves preoccupied by matters of life and death. It is both guide and companion."--Publisher's description.

Publication/Creation

London : Picador, 2017.

Physical description

243 pages ; 23 cm

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references.

Contents

1. A Matter of Life and Death -- 2. Injury Time -- 3. Forever Young? -- 4. I -- Me -- Mine -- 5. The Skull of Man -- 6. Silly of Me -- 7. Losing the Plot -- 8. Do No Harm -- 9. Astride of a Grave -- 10. The Will to Live -- 11. The Person Who Was Ill -- 12. Where Are We Going? -- 13. The Good Death -- 14. The Necessity of Dying -- 15. Last Words -- 16. One Foot in the Grave -- 17. Staring at the Sun -- 18. The Dying of the Light -- 19. The Nowness of Everything -- 20. A Month in the Country.

Type/Technique

Languages

Where to find it

  • LocationStatus
    History of Medicine
    JIB.AI
    Open shelves

Permanent link

Identifiers

ISBN

  • 9781509815289
  • 1509815287