Still Alive: A Temporary Condition

by Herbert Gold

A whimsical memoir of the author's first seventy years recounts the experiences that shaped his outlook and philosophies about living life to its fullest, in an account that also describes his enjoyment of life during his senior years.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

250 pages, Hardcover

First published July 9, 2008

About the author

San Francisco literary icon Herbert Gold was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1924. After several of his poems were accepted by literary magazines as a teenager, he studied philosophy at Columbia University, where he befriended writers who would define the Beat Generation, from Anaïs Nin to Allen Ginsberg. Gold won a Fulbright fellowship and moved to Paris, where he did graduate studies at the Sorbonne and worked on his first novel Birth of a Hero, published in 1951.

Gold wrote more than thirty books, including the bestsellers Fathers and The Man Who Was Not With It and received many awards, including the Sherwood Anderson Award for Fiction, the Commonwealth Club Gold Medal, and the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award. He also taught at the University of California at Berkeley, and at Stanford, Cornell, and Harvard.

Gold returned to writing poetry in the last years of his life, creating the book Father Verses Sons, A Correspondence in Poems with his sons, filmmaker Ari Gold and musician Ethan Gold, which was finalized in the weeks before his death, and is now being published by Rare Bird Lit. He also acted in a companion film, Brother Verses Brother coming in late 2024.

Reviews

[Books Ring Mah Bell · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know, I feel like a huge jerk giving 2 stars to someone's memoir. Who am I to say, "Hey, your telling of your life story is a snoozer!" Well, I'm me and I just did.

I expected more from this as I really love the time in which Gold grew up - I often think I was born in the wrong era, that I should be shuffling along in a nursing home somewhere, playing bridge, reminiscing about the war, while listening to some big band music. Oh, and ooops, that wasn't just a fart!

There were a few chapters in the book that are worthy of 10 stars, one chapter is entitled "ghosts" and after 80 years on the planet, one certainly has them. Another chapter is entitled, "Still Alive" and both of these chapters spoke to me of aging positively in spite of sagging body parts and not recognizing the geezer in the mirror. However, the greatness contained in these chapters was not enough (for me) to "save" the book.

Glad I only paid a dollar for it.

[Christie Trejo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author!

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the writing style very much but was a bit put off by the slightly arrogant tone of the writer. He is funny, but sort of puts other people down. A memoir is by its nature focused on the writer, but somehow this one seemed to be focused on others in a way that was a bit too self-satisfied and smug.

[Jo Marengere · Rating 4 out of 5]

He writes beautifully about aging. I recommend this book. It's very thought provoking.

[Miranda Rosbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Snarky start, then mellows out. Second memoir in a month, perhaps it's time for a new genre.

[Alicia · Rating 1 out of 5]

didnt like this book at all.