His revisits friendships with film critics like Gene Siskel and directors like Werner Herzog and Martin Scorsese. People are extremely important in Ebert's life and the narrative of Life Itself. If my cancer had come, and it would have, and Chaz had not been there with me, I can imagine a descent into lonely decrepitude. How can I begin to tell you about Chaz? She fills my horizon, she is the great fact of my life, she is the love of my life, she saved me from the fate of living out my life alone, which is where I seemed to be heading. In Life Itself, Ebert revisits his Catholic upbringing in Illinois suburbs and his wife, Chaz, whom he didn't find until later in life because of his alcoholism. 'All my life I've been visited by unexpected flashes of memory unrelated to anything taking place at the moment.' I think all of these individuals were exceptional that they thought to write at all.Įbert wrote that he saw his life as a film. We never know what we will think-not to mention say-about life when we know it will end. These are my personal feelings, of course, nothing critical.

Ever pursuant of truth but less expansive. The latter, written the last year of Hitchens' life and after he had lost capacity to speak, a more contracting tale. The first brims with energy and a generous expansion of self. Oliver Sack's Gratitude and Christopher Hitchens' Mortality. Perhaps both Life Itself reminds me of two other books written by dying men. It is that person who is writing this book.įaced with life-altering illness, Ebert writes with uncharacteristic seriousness, even sentiment, perhaps from a need to self-reveal, perhaps from expediency. I was diagnosed with cancers of the thyroid and jaw, I had difficult surgeries, I lost the ability to speak, eat, or drink, and two failed attempts to rebuild my jaw led to shoulder damage that makes it difficult to walk easily and painful to stand. Ebert is the subject, director, and writer. All of Ebert's 'Great Movie' reviews are available online. And he made me think I might do it too.Įbert's collection Great Movies are guides to an enduring art form and a celebration of the highest talent that ever existed in movies.

Ebert wrote beautifully, passionately, and in the first person about something he loved. Film critic Roger Ebert (J– April 4, 2013) is the reason I'm a writer.

Roger ebert life itself book