This is the life: “Not the one you had yesterday. Or the one that might not be here tomorrow. Just this one. Here and now.”

This is the Life

Alex Shearer

Harper Collins

BlueDoor

ISBN: 9780007529711

 

Description:

Even when you have received a death sentence, you still have to live…

 

“Life just seems like a big party sometimes, at which we all gradually get edged to the door, and then we are out in the cold. But the party continues without us…”

This is the story of Louis, who never quite fitted in, and of his younger brother who always tagged along.

Two brothers on one final journey together, wading through the stuff that is thicker than water.

Tender-hearted, at times achingly funny, This is the Life is a moving testimony to both the resilience of the human spirit and to the price of strawberries.

 

 

My View:

This is the life: “Not the one you had yesterday. Or the one that might not be here tomorrow. Just this one. Here and now.”

 

Never a more relevant word was spoken – this is the life we have, right now, not tomorrow, or yesterday or…someday. Life is right now and we should be doing our best to live our life fully and be the best we can be. Don’t wait for a life sentence to wake up and see what is happening around you, participate…now.

 

This is a very quirky book written with great insight (some ideas I didn’t really appreciate until after I had finished the book and had time to let the observations settle and permeate my brain) others I silently nodded my head in a agreement as I read, or read out loud to my partner so he too could appreciate the nuances of this narrative. This book resonated with me, I discovered people I knew in this narrative, people who had the same quirks, the same opinions, the same diagnosis – life and for death surround us – but some chose to start dying prematurely, before the sentence has been revealed (and I want to shake them and say “wake up, don’t just exist… you are worth it, eat strawberries if you want to”).

 

Quirky. At times hilarious. Always poignant. Reflective. Inspiring.