"The Very Last Interview is a unique work, a lacerating self-examination that came about when David decided to gather every interview he ever did, going back nearly 40 years. If it was radio or TV, he transcribed it. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, but he knew he wasn't interested in any of his own answers. The questions interested him - approximately 2,700, which he collated and cut down to form 22 chapters focused on subjects that include...

The author melds personal history with frank biological data about every stage of life, creating an "autobiography about my body" that seeks meaning in death, but moreover, life. Shields filters his frank--and usually foreboding--data through his own experience as a 51-year-old father with burgeoning back pain, contrasting his own gloomy tendencies with the defiant perspective of his own 97-year-old father, a man who has waged a lifelong, urgent battle...