SPY OF THE FIRST PERSON, by Sam Shepard.Alfred A. Knopf, 82 pp., $18. Spy of the First Person stands as a mile-marker to a writer who worked when his hands no longer could. The book was published in December 2017, some five months after Shepard’s death. SPY OF THE FIRST PERSON tells the story of an unnamed narrator who traces his memories of work, adventure and travel as he undergoes medical tests and treatments for a condition that is rendering him more and more dependent on the loved ones who are caring for him. Other articles where Spy of the First Person is discussed: Sam Shepard: …his final work, the novel Spy of the First Person. And we still have it now. A sharply observed, slender novel set in familiar Shepard (The One Inside, 2017, etc.) It centres on the reflections of a dying man.
He wouldn't allow his craft to be crippled. “Spy of the First Person,” about a dying man, is shot through with dread and decay but has parched humor as well. Spy of the First Person tells in a braid of voices the story of an unnamed narrator who traces his memories of work, adventure, and travel as he undergoes medical tests and treatments for a condition that is rendering him more and more dependent on the loved ones who are caring for him. At the end, Shepard still had his voice. Books How A Dying Sam Shepard Wrote ‘Spy of the First Person’ Stricken with ALS, the author dictated his autobiographical final novel to his daughter and sisters