Life Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue Summary and Reviews

Life Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue
by Spalding Gray

Life Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue
List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $0.01
You Save: $19.94 (100%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Spalding Gray
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-10-04
ISBN: 1400048613
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Crown

Book Reviews of Life Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue

Book Review: A loss for all of us
Summary: 5 Stars

My first thought upon hearing that Spalding Gray was missing was that he could not have killed himself. At the end of "Morning, Noon, and Night," which I was fortunate enough to see him perform in early 2002, he imagined Hell as a state in which one floats, disembodied, able to see and hear others but not touch them or interact with them in any way. This is certainly a different take on "Grandma is watching over you from Heaven." If she is watching over you, it's not from Heaven.

This book contains Gray's final monologue, in which he describes the accident which eventually led to his death. Most of the book, and I suspect, the reason for its publication, consists of recollections of Gray by those who knew him - how he affected them as a friend, colleague, or performer. The most affecting was the one by his step-daughter, who was the only contributor who actually lived with him in his final days. Her admission that maybe everyone was better off without him is born of the ignorance and bluntness of the young, who have not yet learned to dissemble in order to spare the feelings of others. Out of essay after essay celebrating Gray's "honesty," hers was itself the most honest. It must have been quite a different matter to live with him, rather than simply visit, or for those at a sufficiently great distance, to have the luxury of simply recalling how he was before the accident.

We subsequently learned that Gray had attempted suicide several times already. The night he leapt from the ferry was so cold that the deck had been roped off. He must have stepped over the rope and climbed off the railing - unfortunately, not an accident, and not an unanticipated one. In some sense, his family must have agreed to let him go, as difficult as this is to accept.

Gray's passing, and the events and emotions surrounding it, gave me the idea for a play or story. A great, accomplished, famous, and widely beloved man is suicidally depressed. His family bears the brunt of his care, and are exhausted. They come up with the idea of appealing for help from the legions of his fan base. The idea is, if after someone's death, people will say "if only I could have done something," they now will have the chance to "do something" while he is alive.

At first, the response is overwhelming. Enormous numbers of people volunteer to help. As the great man is shuttled from one to another, however, the volunteers turn out to be grossly self-serving, incompetent, or well-meaning but ill-equipped to deal with his needs and demands. In the end, the family must once again take over, with the inevitable conclusion.

Gray's death was not merely our loss of his wit, his observations, his unique presence in our lives. It was the demonstration of our own inability to prevent it, and our own limitations in the face of life's unbearable sorrow.

Biographies & Memoirs Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in What I've Been Listening To since 8/7/06
Uncle Tom's Cabin (Wordsworth Classics) ImageUncle Tom's Cabin (Wordsworth Classics)
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Wordsworth Editions Ltd; Published: 1999-12-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.32
Price in other shops: $4.99
Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me ImageWonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me
by Pattie Boyd, Penny Junor
Harmony; Published: 2007-08-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.24
Price in other shops: $25.95
Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself ImageThings I Overheard While Talking to Myself
by Alan Alda
Random House; Published: 2007-09-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.10
Price in other shops: $24.95
Sex and Death to the Age 14 ImageSex and Death to the Age 14
by Spalding Gray
Vintage; Published: 1986-06-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.82
Price in other shops: $19.00
Terrors of Pleasure ImageSpalding Gray - Terrors of Pleasure
Release date: 1993-01-26; Music CD
Best price: $86.88
Life Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue ImageLife Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue
by Spalding Gray
Crown; Published: 2005-10-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: $19.95
Population: 485 (P.S.) ImagePopulation: 485 (P.S.)
by Michael Perry
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.40
Price in other shops: $13.99
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid ImagePalestine: Peace Not Apartheid
by Jimmy Carter
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2007-09-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.62
Price in other shops: $15.00
Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood ImageSpeedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood
by Teri Garr, Henriette Mantel
Plume; Published: 2006-10-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.50
Price in other shops: $15.00
Tough Choices: A Memoir ImageTough Choices: A Memoir
by Carly Fiorina
Portfolio Trade; Published: 2007-09-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: $15.00
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Glass Castle: A Memoir ImageThe Glass Castle: A Memoir
by Jeannette Walls
Scribner; Published: 2006-01-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.79
Price in other shops: $15.00
Impossible Vacation ImageImpossible Vacation
by Spalding Gray
Vintage; Published: 1993-04-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.97
Price in other shops: $12.00
Monster in a Box ImageMonster in a Box
by Spalding Gray
Vintage; Published: 1992-02-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.75
Price in other shops: $15.00
Morning, Noon and Night ImageMorning, Noon and Night
by Spalding Gray
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2000-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.88
Price in other shops: $13.00
Gray's Anatomy ImageGray's Anatomy
Release date: 1999-06-29; DVD
Best price: $16.91
Gray's Anatomy ImageGray's Anatomy
by Spalding Gray
Vintage; Published: 1993-11-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.65
Price in other shops: $12.00
Sex and Death to the Age 14 ImageSex and Death to the Age 14
by Spalding Gray
Vintage; Published: 1986-06-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.92
Price in other shops: $19.00
It's a Slippery Slope ImageIt's a Slippery Slope
by Spalding Gray
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 1997-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.98
Price in other shops: $13.00
Monster in a Box: The Movie ImageMonster in a Box: The Movie
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2006-11-28; DVD
Best price: $8.69
Price in other shops: $14.99
Swimming to Cambodia ImageSwimming to Cambodia
by Spalding Gray
Theatre Communications Group; Published: 2005-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops: $12.95