Not Dying

Not Dying: An Autobiographical Interlude (1963) is a deeply reflective, stylistically innovative memoir written by William Saroyan during a period of professional transition and personal aging. The book covers a specific three-month interlude in Paris during the summer of 1959, where Saroyan resided with his two teenage children, Aram and Lucy. Rather than a traditional chronological autobiography, the book operates as a day-to-day log of a writer fighting against creative stagnation, financial pressure, and the looming realization of mortality.