Life Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue
Written by Spalding Gray and Francine Prose
Narrated by Sam Shepard
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
Life Interrupted was the monologue that Spalding Gray was working on when he died in the early winter of 2004.
Famous for his often manic and always humorous monologues, Gray was, by the late 1990's, in a happy marriage living in Long Island, doing yoga every day. But his life became unhinged after a devastating car accident in Ireland in 2001, which fractured his skull and crushed his hip. It sent Gray into a deep and unremitting depression.
But the fact that Spalding had begun performing a new piece in October of last year gave his friends and family reason to hope that he was emerging from his despair. The monologue recounts the story of the accident and Gray's hospitalization in Ireland with gallows humor: "The following day I slipped into a depression and I didn't know whether to tell the Irish about it, whether they would acknowledge this depression. I mean, does a fish know it's swimming in water? It's indigenous to the rainy culture."
The last time Gray performed his work-in-progress "Life Interrupted" at PS 122, he also read a short story called "The Anniversary," about the afternoon he spent with young Theo at the Carousel in Central Park on the tenth anniversary of the day he met his wife, Kathie Russo. Like the unfinished monologue, this piece is also much darker than Gray's early work. The third piece in this collection is a very short, remarkably poignant letter Spalding wrote about the terrorist attacks of September 11, titled "Dear New York City."
Spalding Gray
Writer and actor Spalding Gray was best known for writing and starring in autobiographical monologues like Swimming to Cambodia, Monster in a Box, and It’s a Slippery Slope where he humorously integrated his anxieties and experiences into stage performances. He was a co-founder of the Wooster Theatre Group in New York City and also appeared in films such as The Killing Field and Kate & Leopold.
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Reviews for Life Interrupted
20 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5There's a fair amount of filler in this book, seeing as it's primarily composed of an unfinished monologue, a few short pieces, and many essays of appreciation from various people. I skimmed or skipped much of the ancillary material, but I enjoyed the central piece that relates details about the car accident that appears to have precipitated Gray's long depression that ended in his suicide. That bitter note is not present in the monologue, however, and it's a pleasant addition to his work for anyone who enjoyed reading his stories and witnessing his dramatic recitations of them.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book contains Gray's last pieces, as well as tributes to him by various friends, family, and colleagues at a memorial service held after his death. It's a reminder of how much we've lost now that the world no longer has Spalding Gray in it.