I found this book rather strange, as it is called 'The Writing Life', and yet the author spends the book (at least the very few parts that are not memoirs) talking about why writing sucks, how it's really hard, and why no one should ever do it. She also managed to impale every single bit of good writing wisdom I've ever heard. It was truly quite bizarre! I'm not sure why someone would use such a great amount of energy to ultimately hate on writers and writing. What a sad little book.