Book Review: Ursula Le Guin, No Time to Spare
No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ms. Le Guin, who recently passed away, wrote this collection of essays published in 2017 when she was in her mid-80s. It is a wakeup call to older authors that the writing life lasts as long as the words can be put cogently upon paper!
Le Guin’s essays are sharp, funny, and filled with wisdom.
Being a cat person myself, I was delighted to hear of the adventures of her new cat, Pard. One of her essays begins, “Last Thursday night, Pard woke me up about 3 a.m. by bringing his real, live mouse toy onto the bed so I could play with it, too.”
Upon receiving a questionnaire from Harvard asking about her spare time, she replies, “I am free, but my time is not. My time is fully and vitally occupied with sleep, daydreaming, with doing business and writing friends and family on email, with reading, with writing poetry, with writing prose, with thinking, with forgetting, with embroidering, with cooking and eating a meal and cleaning up the kitchen…” she goes on listing activities, ending with, “lying down for an afternoon rest..with my own slightly crazy cat occupying the regions between my upper thighs and mid-calves, where he arranges himself and goes instantly and deeply to sleep. None of this is spare time. What is Harvard thinking of? I am going to be eighty-one next week. I have no time to spare.”
When asked about old age, Le Guin said her pet peeve are the ads portraying “typical” older people with airbrushed wrinkles skiing diamond slopes or running ultra-marathons. What about the rest of us? she questions.
An excellent read, as Le Guin gives an unsparingly honest reflection upon our lives and the times in which we live.
