You’ve Been So Lucky Already – A Memoir by Alethea Black: book review

You’ve Been So Lucky Already (2018) is set in America in contemporary times.

Teenager Alethea is the oldest of four girls, best friends with her hero mathematician father Fischer, and frenemies with her mother when her father dies. Her grief is unbearable – for years – through her first job, when she turns to faith, and throughout her mixed success with dating.

In her 40s, she meets her boyfriend, The Last of the Last Great Men, and now she is truly happy. Why then does she wake with fatigue, pain, digestive problems, hair loss, and memory deterioration? She discusses her condition with three doctors. All three doctors say she’s healthy and fine.

It is not anxiety – it is something more tangible she thinks. Is it mould, or parasites, or something more sinister?

This is the memoir of Alethea’s search for home remedies to health and wellbeing. It’s a personal journey, but one that may resonate with readers.

The style of writing is simple and flowing, quick and easy-to-read. It’s inwardly reflective, but not obsessive. Rather, it’s a problem-solving, health journey, showing that ‘not feeling your best self’ impacts relationships, from family to lovers, and from work colleagues to pets.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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