Okay, this was a book club's holiday pick for an uplifting story. They didn't like my pick from last year, David Sedaris' Holidays on Ice because it was "too dark." But, assuming my news is up to date, David Sedaris didn't die of cancer. Go figure.
It's not without it's charm, and there are some decent pieces of advice in here, but overall I would say it's aptly titled. Listening to it in audiobook format is kind of like taking a long car trip with your dad right after you did something dumb, like burning down a chicken coop or running with a screwdriver and falling on it and puncturing your lung. He sort of goes on and on about the right way to do things, dad-style. He makes a good point about him being a lecturer and therefore the lecture is his final act, but I would say that's why you should just watch the original lecture on Youtube. It's not as polished, but I think it's a closer representation of what he did. Plus, that way you don't have to read these awkward descriptions of physical things he did during the lecture.
The topic of his lecture being "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" was also a little unappealing to me, as that would mean I would either be currently testing water slides, which seems hazardous, or be a ninja turtle, which involves being exposed to mutagen ooze, which seems equally hazardous.
Something he left out of the lecture but mentions a bit in the book is his religious beliefs and ties. He doesn't lecture on them so much, but does mention what a great help the church can be in these tough times. He's probably right, the church and its ideas must be comforting when you're on your death bed. But he didn't mention them in the original lecture, and I think his instinct was right in that case. Anyone can talk about the church, and this was his opportunity to give a talk that no one else could give. No need to waste it talking about the most-debated topic of all time.
This book brings up the really interesting point of whether the circumstances surrounding a book change our feelings about it. Does this book get more gravitas because we know the guy was dying, and he did in fact die about a year after the lecture? Does a Charles Bukowski poem mean more because we know he lived every line? Does a Raymond Carver story change if we know which parts are drawn from real life and which parts are invented?
A writer talking about fiction said that people think writing is a way of confronting issues, when in fact it's often a way of avoiding confronting things head on. You can use style to work your way around your main issues, and if you came at them head-on you'd end up destroying yourself. I think there's a lot of truth to that. I don't think a lot of effective prose is written from a place where authors have the answers to their own personal issues.
That said, I don't know that the circumstances surrounding a particular work are all that important. Raymond Carver writes a lot about poor and middle class folks, which he was, but he was also very well-educated. Denis Johnson writes with an easy, very blue collar feel, but he holds an MFA from Iowa. I'm not by any means attacking them or their writing. Both are excellent writers. But what I'm saying is that I think that Carver growing up the way he did doesn't make his writing good, it just confirms what we suspect already.
James Frey, a personality I find myself talking about often, is another good one to discuss. People were disappointed by his lies or omissions or additions or whatever you want to call them. But truthfully, I think he wrote a couple excellent books, and the space separating the fiction and non-fiction shelves is so small that I could care less. But, as evidenced in his case, the circumstances surrounding a book DO matter to a lot of people.
I think that's the case with the Last Lecture as well. I honestly do not think it would be the freight train of the self-help-ish genre that it is if it weren't for the fact that we all know what a labor of love it was for Randy Pausch, his final act. As a part of the whole story, it works. But as something to read, it doesn't offer a whole lot, not a whole book's worth, of good, sound advice.
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