Better than I expected.

At first this seemed like a light, frothy chic-let kind of book. It did get better, the characters developed, and in the end, it was even memorable. ( )

Overall, it was a decent read, but the beginning was difficult to get thru. I understand that given a cancer diagnosis and a failing marriage could set a person on edge. But I just couldn't get into her mindset and her reaction towards the people around her. The story got better when she removed herself from her environment and went on a vacation. There was more self analysis and acceptance of her situation.

3.5 stars. Easy breezy read about a tough topic. Laughing at a cancer novel seems weird, but Pagán made me do it! ( )

This was a quick, enjoyable read in spite of the fact that a.) it's completely implausible and b.) the main character is dying. I really liked it but I wish the author had reconsidered the ending. After the heroine spends the entire book describing how awful and life-altering it was for her that her mother died when she was so young, she decides to have children knowing she may very well subject them to that same fate. ( )

I didn’t want to gush, but come on, it’s another great book by author Camille Pagán so I have to. It is the rare book that can make you find the humor and hope in the serious, sad side of life, but the amazing Pagán pulls it off flawlessly.

I was reading a “very serious book” about very serious topics but it was dry, dry, dry, and not very believable and I struggling to maintain interest. An author I follow wrote a tiny little blip that Life and Other Near-Death Experiences was on sale or something and that was all it took. Camille Pagán is an author I know, love and trust so I immediately tossed aside the other book, never to be opened again, and I am very glad that I did. I had to sleep a little bit but I read Life and Other Near-Death Experiences nearly straight through.

Libby Miller gets devastating news from her doctor: inoperable cancer, only a few months to live, a death sentence. When she gets home her husband is devastated, too. But it’s not about her. He is gay and this is when he decides to tell her that and that their marriage is over. This is serious stuff. But Pagán’s genius is in making everything that Libby says and does from this point on not only somber and sad, but funny and romantic and normal. Libby decides to toss the optimism she has always worked hard to maintain and from now until the end just do whatever she wants – escape, be frivolous, just not care. She quits her job, gets divorced, sells their apartment before her (soon-to-be-ex) husband can blink, refuses to consider any medical treatment, and flies off to the Caribbean. With nothing to lose what does it matter? But her twin brother and her ex-husband track her down, she has some very interesting conversations with the woman who owns the cottage Libby is renting, and she meets . . . a man. And Libby just maybe starts to think, “What if??”

This story is tragically sad and serious and scary but also happy and funny and hopeful and makes you cry and has you laughing out loud. The characters are so well developed, so full of complications that you can’t put the book down, and you will be in love with Libby from page one. I highly recommend this book and this author. Read everything she writes and then go back and read it again. ( )