Part survival tale, part confessional, part meditation, part observation, James Atlas's funny and poignant memoir reveals the pleasures and pathos of the decades of our forties and fifties -- the time when we face, for better or worse, our limitations and discover who we are. Whether he is struggling with God or trying to find out if he believes in one, celebrating the books he's loved and regretting those he'll never read, or leafing through the snapshots in his family album and marveling at the passage of time, Atlas is always alert to the surprises of everyday life as he shows us how to flourish -- how to live.
