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My Nine Lives
Chapters Of A Possible Past
by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Nine pieces of "autobiographical fiction" in which the author imagines alternate paths her life might have taken.
Shoemaker & Hoard, 224 pages
05/01/2004
$25.00
ISBN: 1593760280
Fiction
General Literature & Fiction
NOTES:
Illustrated by C.S.H. Jhabvala.
All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...
Booklist Donna Seaman
Jhabvala name-drops Chekhov, and this is no pretension given the grace of her spiraling plots, the depth of her psychology, the elegance of her humor, the subtly of her eroticism, and her masterfully concise descriptions of imperiled households, eccentric personalities, sexual enthrallment, unexpected alliances, and transcendent love. [15 March 2004, p.. 1265]
Los Angeles Times Merle Rubin
My Nine Lives presents a fascinating array of characters, settings and life experiences. Each of the stories functions as a brilliantly inventive variation on the volume's central theme, but at the same time, each is substantial, distinctive, fully developed: complete in and of itself. [12 July 2004, p.E9]
The Economist
"My Nine Lives" is an accomplished, unusual and deeply personal book. Its thought-provoking themes and emotional power will leave readers musing on the alternative lives they too might have led.
Publishers Weekly
Each story is sinewy with compressed emotion and intellectual energy, as well as the poignancy of a thwarted search for love.
Boston Globe Judy Budz
In this book, Jhabvala suggests that we might use the intersection of memory and imagination to fix our moments of beauty and truth, to choose the moments of value in the stages of our lives.
Daily Telegraph Kate Chisolm
I found these stories beguiling, the reflections of a writer looking back over her life with the calm induced by the realisation that the choices we make, or that are made for us, are immaterial; what counts is how we deal with them.
Daily Telegraph Jane Shilling
The cumulative effect of her alternative destinies is not of pathos but of survival, of quiet desperation tempered with grace and, eventually, with triumph.
The Independent Lesley McDowell
In her latest book, Jhabvala, perhaps best known for her screenplays for James Ivory and Ishmael Merchant, has taken the immigrant experience and personalised it in a wonderfully unique way.
The Independent Clare Colvin
It makes one wish she would write a memoir, rather than what is almost a dance of the nine veils. In the meantime, we will have to be content with these tantalising clues.
The Spectator Lee Langley
Prawer Jhabvala has an even, unemotional tone of voice that conceals irony, lethal observation and sly humour. She can be caustic without being cruel, indulgent towards her slinky, sexy ladies and domineering geniuses.
Washington Post Sudip Bose
Some of the stories are told retrospectively, and the best are related by a cool melancholy voice that cannot be trusted all the time.
Library Journal Leann Isaac
An enjoyable read that could make an intriguing book club choice. [15 March 2004, p.106]
The New York Times Book Review Pankaj Mishra
''My Nine Lives'' expresses, above all, her increasingly formidable detachment and, despite its many pleasures of observation, appears to round off rather than add to a distinguished corpus.
Kirkus Reviews
A shuffling, to some degree, of all the same cards makes for a certain repetitiveness. But Jhabvala still outwrites many an author.
The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Anita Rau Badami
It is as though the attempt to hold back from being assimilated, the need to feel exiled that Jhabvala writes about in her apologia, has wormed its way into the book, creating a barrier between me the reader and the story, preventing the kind of involvement that makes a novel truly satisfying.
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