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A review by pbraue13
Agatha Christie: An Autobiography by Agatha Christie
5.0
A charmingly written and smart autobiography of a woman (and famed mystery writer) who lived her life to the fullest. As a fan of her novels (I am still attempting to read them all - Dame Agatha wrote so many that it is incredibly hard to catch up) I seized upon this book with eagerness and excitement. The book feels like I sat down and had a conversation with the writer and she told me all about her life. In fact, there may be something to the having a conversation with her as if you check out the Audible audiobook it is her own recordings (ignore the bad audio) for this book, mainly the moments discussing her writing process and creation of some of her most iconic characters.
The book has been fitted together and edited to perfection posthumously by her publishers as this book was worked on by the writer over a period of 15 years (from 1950 to 1965) in an effort to set the record straight about her life before many people were bound to write biographies about her pre/post her death. All the repetitions and inconsistencies have been eliminated or smoothed out for an autobiography that is beautifully put together and feels like a cozy, warm hug from a relative you love. Inspiring, smart, and again so much fun!
My only qualm with it is the fact that one of the most interesting and unexplained moments in her life is not explained or talked about - her infamous disappearance and "amnesia". Yet, even then the way she doesn't talk about it makes it all the more interesting and the book all the more engaging. She religates the year that it happens to one sentence or two, mentioning that it is a painful year that she hates to recall or talk about. It's no wonder considering that was the year her mother died, she had to clean out and sell her family home, she was becoming world famous, and her husband revealed that he was cheating on her and wanted a divorce. All that at once would make anyone want to disappear, but in her writing around that year you get the sense that she was able to find happiness and heal and it made me all the happier for her. The other flaw in this book is that she stopped writing it 15 years prior to her death and all her future successes! I would have loved to have heard her opinions on the long-running "The Mousetrap" (which is still the longest running play in history) and the amazing adaptation of "Murder on the Orient Express". Otherwise, great!
5/5 stars!
The book has been fitted together and edited to perfection posthumously by her publishers as this book was worked on by the writer over a period of 15 years (from 1950 to 1965) in an effort to set the record straight about her life before many people were bound to write biographies about her pre/post her death. All the repetitions and inconsistencies have been eliminated or smoothed out for an autobiography that is beautifully put together and feels like a cozy, warm hug from a relative you love. Inspiring, smart, and again so much fun!
My only qualm with it is the fact that one of the most interesting and unexplained moments in her life is not explained or talked about - her infamous disappearance and "amnesia". Yet, even then the way she doesn't talk about it makes it all the more interesting and the book all the more engaging. She religates the year that it happens to one sentence or two, mentioning that it is a painful year that she hates to recall or talk about. It's no wonder considering that was the year her mother died, she had to clean out and sell her family home, she was becoming world famous, and her husband revealed that he was cheating on her and wanted a divorce. All that at once would make anyone want to disappear, but in her writing around that year you get the sense that she was able to find happiness and heal and it made me all the happier for her. The other flaw in this book is that she stopped writing it 15 years prior to her death and all her future successes! I would have loved to have heard her opinions on the long-running "The Mousetrap" (which is still the longest running play in history) and the amazing adaptation of "Murder on the Orient Express". Otherwise, great!
5/5 stars!