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Making It Up
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Making It Up Hardcover - 2005

by Penelope Lively

Authors of fiction are often asked, 'How much of what you write comes from your own life?' This is especially the case for Penelope Lively, whose celebrated works such as The Photograph and the Booker Prize-winning Moon Tiger ring so true that they seem to tread that fine line between fact and fiction.

Making It Up is Lively's engrossing and deftly constructed response. What if her family's escape from Egypt during World War II had a different outcome? What would her life have been like if she'd become pregnant at eighteen? Or if she had married someone else?

As Lively weaves through very plausible hesitations, choices, and definitive moments of a life, she also offers a meditation on the nature of fate, destiny, and choice. An examination of those junctures when a split-second decision can change everything, Making It Up is a striking testament to Lively's distinctive gifts and a rare opportunity to glimpse how real life can inspire great fiction.


Summary

"Story-telling is an ingrained habit; I wouldn't know what else to do. But the mythology that is intriguing today is that of imagined alternatives. Somehow, choice and contingency have landed you where you are, as the person that you are, and the whole process seems so precarious that you look back at those climatic moments when things might have gone differently, when life might have spun off in some other direction, and wonder at this apparently arbitrary outcome". In this fascinating new piece of fiction, Penelope Lively takes moments from her own life and asks "what if" she had made other choices: what if she hadn't escaped from Alexandria at the outbreak of WWII? What would her life have been like if she had become pregnant when she was 18? If she had married someone else? If she taken a different job? If she had lived her life abroad? In this highly original work, Penelope Lively examines alternative destinies, choices and the moments in our lives when we could have chosen a different path....

From the publisher

Authors of fiction are often asked, ?How much of what you write comes from your own life This is especially the case for Penelope Lively, whose celebrated works such as "The Photograph" and the Booker Prize-winning "Moon Tiger" ring so true that they seem to tread that fine line between fact and fiction.

"Making It Up" is Lively's engrossing and deftly constructed response. What if her family's escape from Egypt during World War II had a different outcome? What would her life have been like if she?d become pregnant at eighteen? Or if she had married someone else?

As Lively weaves through very plausible hesitations, choices, and definitive moments of a life, she also offers a meditation on the nature of fate, destiny, and choice. An examination of those junctures when a split-second decision can change everything, "Making It Up" is a striking testament to Lively's distinctive gifts and a rare opportunity to glimpse how real life can inspire great fiction.

Details

  • Title Making It Up
  • Author Penelope Lively
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition First Edition
  • Pages 215
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Viking Books, New York
  • Date 2005-10-20
  • ISBN 9780670034475 / 0670034479
  • Weight 0.85 lbs (0.39 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.78 x 6.36 x 0.86 in (24.84 x 16.15 x 2.18 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2005042331
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

About the author

Penelope Lively grew up in Egypt but settled in England after the war and took a degree in history at St Anne's College, Oxford. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and a member of PEN and the Society of Authors. She was married to the late Professor Jack Lively, has a daughter, a son and four grandchildren, and lives in Oxfordshire and London.

Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize; once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger. Her novels include Passing On, shortlisted for the 1989 Sunday Express Book of the Year Award, City of the Mind, Cleopatra's Sister and Heat Wave.

Penelope Lively has also written radio and television scripts and has acted as presenter for a BBC Radio 4 program on children's literature. She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award.

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Making It Up
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Making It Up

by Lively, Penelope

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Making It Up
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Making It Up

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Making It Up
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Making It Up

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Making It Up

Making It Up

by Penelope Lively

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ISBN 13
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Making It Up

Making It Up

by Penelope Lively

  • Used
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  • Hardcover
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Used - Very Good
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ISBN 13
9780670034475
ISBN 10
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Seattle, Washington, United States
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Description:
Penguin Publishing Group, 2005. Hardcover. Very Good. Former library book; May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
Item Price
$6.14
FREE shipping to USA
Making It Up
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Making It Up

by Lively, Penelope

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ISBN 13
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ISBN 10
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Making It Up
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Making It Up

by Penelope Lively

  • Used
  • Hardcover
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Used: Good
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 13
9780670034475
ISBN 10
0670034479
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Making It Up
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Making It Up

by Lively, Penelope

  • Used
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Used - Very Good
ISBN 13
9780670034475
ISBN 10
0670034479
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