Book Review - A Life of One's Own by Ilana Simons

Rarely do we get a chance to enter the little known world of an author’s most private thoughts. We read their stories and we see their character’s visions through their voice. Plots are seamlessly developed along the way, blending the climactic concordance of these elements. But with this said, I hear a voice in which I have never heard before, by this author, Ilana Simons. She gives a personal account of another author, one who had fought to give her own voice to the world.

Virginia Woolf becomes not just the central character to Ilana’s story, but the narrator of this new author’s dreams and visions. We see the many lives of Woolf, translated into a wealth of intertwining plots.

There was not a single word unsaid, gathering us in, together and around this captivating tribute to a woman to reckon with. Ilana has come to it with force and with beauty, showing us Virginia, a woman who wanted to be everything in life, but only after death, soared and became.

Ilana gives us a rare and intimate voice, in the telling of Woolf’s life challenges, in turn applying them within her own life, then relating it into ours. This wisdom for us is unique, and graces each page she writes. Hard facts and ideas are folding and blending with soft personal thoughts within Virginia’s thoughts, seeking and showing the feelings to which we can all identify.

Virginia strived to relate to her everyday existence, an existence in which she fought her entire life to maintain with balance, while dealing with an illness that brought her life to an all too soon end.

It is, indeed, a rare voice we hear within this book; Ilana showing us what desires can be fulfilled through Virginia’s wisdom, and works Virginia had fought to put in print; Ilana has given to us her own voice in print, straight to our ears, touching our own desires for a better life.

There is no perfect self, or a perfect world, but with Ilana Simons’ tender words, they translate Virginia Woolf’s heart to your heart. You will not come away hungry after reading this book, unless it is a hunger for life.