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It’s fair to describe my parents as voracious readers.
When they visit, they arrive with an assortment of books in tow, ranging from contemporary novels and biographies to straight up whodunits.
And the best part? They leave me the ones they’ve read when they wing home across the Atlantic and I happily add them to my skyscraper of books.
That’s how I came by this month’s book, Chest Pain: A man, a stent and a camper van, a memoir from Irish author, playwright and columnist, Michael Harding.
A keen observer of people and situations, he writes with an honesty and vulnerability that unmasks a melancholy and wistfulness about aging and the passage of time.
As I mentioned in last month’s book review, I’m reading a book a month and this is February’s book.
Reeled In
When I first started reading Chest Pain, I didn’t know where it was going but I couldn’t stop reading it.
Maybe chapter titles such as: The greasy sausages, Five nuns, The cup of tea with toast, The baby in the pram and Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think, also reeled me in.
The turn of phrase, dry humor, musings on life and spirituality, including mentions of so many Irish places I know – Carrick-on-Shannon, Keadue, Ballyfarnan, Mullingar – also conspired to pull me in.
Chest Pain details the months leading up to and following Michael Harding’s heart attack in 2018, as he pressed on with a national book tour, ignoring the signs and symptoms of his ailing heart and keeping his mounting health problems from his “beloved,” as he calls his wife throughout the book.
A keen observer of people and situations, he writes with an honesty and vulnerability that unmasks a melancholy and wistfulness about aging and the passage of time.
Another Chance At Life
The book, however, is ultimately an ode to a renewed sense of appreciating life, valuing those we love and seeing others through the eyes of the heart – a healthier heart.
“I had been given another chance at life, to live a little longer and say yes to the cosmos and yes to a camper van.”
After his heart surgery, he did buy that camper van and set off for Donegal with his beloved.
Find the Kindle edition of Chest Pain here.
Michael Harding is also author of Staring at Lakes, On Tuesdays I’m a Buddhist, Hanging with the Elephant and Talking to Strangers.
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