Good - I enjoyed it. Interesting variation on memoir, to take reality and imbue it with my imaginings

How often do you get to mark a book memoir and fiction, and mean it well? Such an interesting premise--exploring paths her life didn't take, and beautifully executed. Also quite interesting if you, like me, love reading fiction but can't quite imagine how one would go about writing it--here's one way. I've been meaning to read Lively for a while, and am excited to think of all the books of hers that are waiting! ( )

some stories good, some not. ( )

This is a selection of stories that show how different life could have been if different choices had been made at several points. In the end it is quite fascinating and compelling, but also a bit confusing. ( )

Lively describes this book as "an exercise in confabulation". Each chapter starts with a key decision that affected the path her life took, and builds a counterfactual story imagining what might have been had things turned out slightly differently. This is a fascinating premise for a book, and it gives her the latitude to showcase many different kinds of writing, some serious, for example the chapter in which her husband is sent to the Korean war before they met, and others humorous, such as the chapter which analyses a dysfunctional group of archaeologists on a dig. As always her prose is a pleasure to read. ( )