A LIFE’S JOURNEY

An octogenarian recalls life, love, and a career in engineering in this debut memoir.

Reflecting on Socrates’ maxim that “The unexamined life is not worth living,” 88-year-old Furmaga offers autobiographical vignettes that tell “the story of who [he is].” Organized thematically rather than chronologically in four sections, part 1 provides a straightforward account of the author’s childhood in Depression-era Detroit in a household “where strict discipline and tender care coexisted,” and charts his meandering years as a young adult, during which he served a stint in the army and earned a college degree in electrical engineering. The book’s second part centers around a career filled with fascinating jobs in the engineering field, which took him to locales around the world, from work with the Saturn V space program to private sector jobs in jet engine development and deepwater platform work in the Gulf of Mexico. The third and fourth sections offer reflections on “the colorful characters who influenced [his] life.” These include his close relatives and engineering colleagues from across the globe. Perhaps most important are three romantic partners: Linda, DeLinda, and Linh. Approaching these relationships with bracing honesty, Furmaga describes his marriage to Linda, for instance, as “a tumultuous, thirty-eight-year challenge.” Following Linda’s death, his partnership with DeLinda included stints in Europe and a mutual desire for artistic expression that led to the couple writing plays together. Linh, the daughter of a South Vietnamese colonel and 26 years younger than the author, is Furmaga’s current partner; he uses their relationship as a lens through which to reflect on past mistakes. Drawn to existentialist philosophers, the author is at his best when he eschews the autobiographical tropes typically associated with memoirs and instead ponders the beauty of life’s unpredictability (“a series of twists and turns that neither destiny nor perfection can fully direct”). A wealth of photographs accompanies the intimate, engaging text.

A poignant rumination on a life full of adventures, mistakes, and complicated love.