A literary exploration that asks seeks to answer the question: Have I lived the life I intended?Jesse Browner, a novelist with a full-time job at the United Nations, has written a book reminiscent of the Talking Heads classic song "Once in a Lifetime." Based on an essay he wrote for Poets and Writers Magazine, Browner asks hard questions about life choices, about the tendency to believe there is a parallel life that might have been more fulfilling or more free. He wonders: Is the true artist made by single-minded devotion to his craft? Do we compromise our dreams in service to responsibilities to family and jobs?These questions prompted Browner to take a hard look at himself and the evolution that brought him to this moment of existential doubt. In How Did I Get Here? he divides his adult life into five distinct phases--ambition, love, work, fulfillment, and serenity. Sketching portraits of himself at every stage, he looks for idiosyncrasies, commonalities, and clues--signposts that lead him to today. He also draws on the lives of others, from Franz Kafka to his sister to indie rocker Elliott Smith, in search of understanding. What he finds in his courageous quest is bravely honest and inspiring, touching on what it means to live a life with intention and meaning.

Bearer of an illustrious name and nephew of a President of the Republic, Frederic Mitterrand is born into the discreet gentility of Paris's haul bourgeois sixteenth arrondissement. Raised by an army of surrogates, he spends his summers in Evian and North Africa and his winters on Alpine slopes. But, growing up in a time and environment where such things are not talked about, Frederic struggles with a difficult secret. Wracked by a fear of abandonment and confused by his sexual urges toward other boys, he reaches out haphazardly for affection--with both comic and catastrophic results. At age twelve, in the first of many capricious attempts to find his true identity, he sneaks into an audition for a major motion picture and gets a part. Thus begins a life steeped in celebrity, French cinema, and clandestine romantic liaisons. In later life, Mitterand, a renowned critic, producer, and talk show host, seeks out old friends, servants, and loves, who reveal startlingly unexpected interpretations of his formative years. Mitterrand's memoir is a Godard film come to life--a Nouvelle Vague Oh the Glory of It All. Now Minister of Culture and Communication, Mitterrand reveals his life as a denizen of the psychological underworld and gay icon in haute societe.