Home › Books › On Not Being Someone Else: Tales of Our Unled Liv…
On Not Being Someone Else: Tales of Our Unled Lives
by
53/99
Critics' Rating Index
12/99
Readers' Rating Index
n/a
Scholars' Citation Index
34/99
Volume of Reviews
11/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
A captivating book about the emotional and literary power of the lives we might have lived had our chances or choices been different. We each live one life, formed by paths taken and untaken. Choosing a job, getting married, deciding on a place to live or whether to have children--every decision precludes another. But what if you'd gone the other way? It can be a seductive thought, even a haunting one. Andrew H. Miller illuminates this theme of modern culture: the allure of the alternate self. From Robert Frost to Sharon Olds, Virginia Woolf to Ian McEwan, Jane Hirshfield to Carl Dennis, storytellers of every stripe write of the lives we didn't have. What forces encourage us to think this way about ourselves, and to identify with fictional and poetic voices speaking from the shadows of what might have been? Not only poets and novelists, but psychologists and philosophers have much to say on this question. Miller finds wisdom in all these sources, revealing the beauty, the power, and the struggle of our unled lives. In an elegant and provocative rumination, he lingers with other selves, listening to what they say. Peering down the path not taken can be frightening, but it has its rewards. On Not Being Someone Else offers the balm that when we confront our imaginary selves, we discover who we are.
Reviews
"The author also ponders the possibilities of those alternate lives in his own mind, inviting readers to do the same."
"This thoughtful and meditative study from Victorian literature professor Miller...is wonderfully lucid about murky questions of what might have been ..."
"These resources help Miller to think about how alternative lives function, within and beyond the literary work ..."
"Miller's insightful and moving book—both in his own discussion and in the tales he recounts—gently nudges us toward consolation."
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!