This was one of the most fascinating, yet one of the most uncomfortable books for me to read in my life. I remember sitting in an old living room chair as a four year, eating plain noodles when it suddenly occurred to me that I was going to die someday, everyone that I loved would someday die too. I didn't know enough about God, heaven or hell to allow for Christian thought to cushion the absolute terror I experienced in that moment. This memoir took me back to that moment every time I started to read. Barnes is an atheist and his terror is inherently different than mine, but he speaks to the unknown that troubles everyone. It was a thought provoking piece but I'm glad I finished it. Not great reading before bed!!!! How fascinating,as a literary voyeur, it is to read of JB's family folklore.. culminating, after incessant delving into intimate experience and personalities, into a simple truth of a life ..'he wrote books, then he died'Side splittingly funny in a macabre sort of way... almost Monty Pythonesque -could well picture John Cleese delivery -in its happily detached dissection of of our most common fear.From Aristotle to Zola, JB takes us through the (so well researched) sublime to the madness of Living and Dying, with the possibility of a God to accompany us on the journey by providing purpose where there maybe none..just perhaps that 'Death has no more secrets to reveal to us than Life'Yes, he writes books and we are the richer for his braveness which is honest and maybe provides succour in psychic catharthis for JB.. and the reader.
Do You like book Nothing To Be Frightened Of (2008)?
Brilliant, funny; would have been a great read for a time of grief... some very poignant moments...
—jmc
