After a Funeral
by Diana Athill
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When Diana Athill met the man she calls Didi, she fell in love instantly and out of love just as fast. Didi s quirks, which at first appeared so charming and sweet, soon revealed a darker side he was a gambler, a drinker, and a womanizer, impossible to live with but impossible to ignore. After a Funeral explores the years of their friendship; a period that culminated in Didi s suicide (in Athill s apartment). This bravura work gives a new dimension to honesty, a new comprehension to love show more (Vogue). show lessTags
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Member Reviews
A haunting, for me, memoir of a friendship that went sadly wrong owing to her friend's mental state. He became paranoid and suspicious, unable to believe she cared for him, yet unable to break it off. Athill does a wonderful job of showing how innocent conversations and actions became twisted in his mind and how her attempts to reconcile only made things worse. It spoke to me because of someone who was once a good friend, but who changed into someone who disapproved of everything I did and wanted me to understand exactly how I had let her down. Over time she did this with everyone. It was clear there was something deeper going on, and I still miss the friend I knew.
Just didn't like it, nothing about the writing - but ultimately felt unsympathetic for one of the central characters, and raced through the last 30-odd pages because of repetitive self-destruction.
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Slightly Foxed 2
20 works; 1 member
Author Information
15+ Works 2,486 Members
Diana Athill was born in England on December 21, 1917. She was educated at Oxford University. During World War II, she as a researcher with the BBC. She worked as an editor at Allan Wingate and then at André Deutsch. Athill started writing autobiography in her early 40s. Her memoir, Instead of a Letter, was published in 1962. Her other memoirs show more included After a Funeral; Make Believe; Alive, Alive Oh!; Stet; Yesterday Morning; and A Florence Diary. Somewhere Towards the End won a Costa Book Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award. Her other works included a volume of short stories entitled An Unavoidable Delay and a novel entitled Don't Look at Me Like That. She was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2009. She died on January 23, 2019 at the age of 101. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1986
- People/Characters
- Diana Athill
Classifications
- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 828.91409 — Literature & rhetoric English & Old English literatures English miscellaneous writings English miscellaneous writings 1900- English miscellaneous writings 1900-1999 English miscellaneous writings 1945-1999 Individual authors
- LCC
- RC569 .A8 — Medicine Internal medicine Internal medicine Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry Psychiatry Psychopathology Personality disorders. Behavior problems
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 83
- Popularity
- 377,852
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.60)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 4
