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The thing about life is that one day you'll be dead
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The thing about life is that one day you'll be dead

by David Shields

This work combines personal memoir with biological data about every stage of life to examine the physical realities of ageing and mortality. It contrasts a middle-aged narrator's anxieties about growing older with his ninety-seven-year-old father's defiant attitude.

Accession 7771 ISBN 9780307268044 Publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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The thing about life is that one day you'll be dead spine
The thing about life is that one day you'll be dead cover
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TAGS
Curated Derived
Age Communication Culture Death Death and Burial Economics Family and Society Life Literature Philosophy Service Industries Social Sciences Time
CONNECTIONS
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State
on_shelf
False
position_updated_at
never
orientation
unknown
Details

Physical

binding_type
Hard Back
dimensions
none captured
spine_text
none captured

Metadata

Book form
LOCATION HISTORY
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Last synced 2026-06-09 14:50 (1 day, 1 hour ago)

Identity

name→ title
The thing about life is that one day you'll be dead
vernon_id
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7771
vernon_slug
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Descriptive

production_date
2008
object_type
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object_status
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brief_description
Shields begins with the facts of birth and childhood, expertly weaving in anecdotal information about himself and his father. As the book proceeds through adolescence, middle age, old age, he juxtaposes biological details with bits of philosophical speculation, cultural history and criticism, and quotations from a wide range of writers and thinkers from Lucretius to Woody Allen yielding a magical whole: the universal story of our bodily being, a tender and often hilarious portrait of one family.

Subjects & people

authors→ author (initial fill only)
David Shields
tags→ tags
Social psychology, Psychology, Literature, Philology, Social sciences, Civilisation, Sociology, Culture, Economics, Industries, Death, Life, Families, Social institutions, Interpersonal relations, Death care industry, Service industries, Death -- Social aspects
subject_people
David Shields (American, b.1956)
subject_objects
—

Cover image

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21510

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