What Comes Next and How to Like It: A Memoir - Hardcover

Thomas, Abigail

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1476785058 ISBN 13: 9781476785059

Publisher: Scribner, 2015

Synopsis

From the bestselling author of "A Three Dog Life," which "shines with honest intelligence" (Elizabeth Gilbert): a fresh, exhilarating, superbly written memoir about aging, family, creativity, tragedy, friendship, and the richness of life. What comes next? What comes after the devastating loss of Abigail's husband, a process both sudden and slow? What form does her lifelong platonic friendship take after a certain line is crossed? How to cope with her daughter's diagnosed illness? Or the death of her beloved dog? Is life worth living without three cocktails before dinner? How do you paint the ocean on a sheet of glass? And how to like it? How to accept, appreciate, enjoy? Who are our most trusted, valuable companions and what will we do for them? Instead of painting an ocean, paint a forest, turn it over, scrape the surface, and presto: there is the ocean. When you've given up, when you least expect it, there it is. "What Comes Next and How to Like It" is an extraordinarily moving memoir about many things, but at the center is a steadfast friendship between Abigail Thomas and a man she met thirty-five years ago. Through marriages, child-raising, the vicissitudes and tragedies of life, it is this deep, rich bond that has sustained her. Readers who loved "the perfectly honed observations of a clear-eyed and witty writer" ("Newsweek") in Thomas's "spare, astonishing" ("Entertainment Weekly") memoir, "A Three Dog Life," will relish this beautiful examination of her life today--often solitary, but rich and engaging, with children, grandchildren, dogs, a few suitors, and her longtime best friend.

About this title

Review

"What Comes Next and How to Like It is a beautifully felt, deeply moving memoir, the best work yet by a woman who has already done some of the best work in the field. It's about friendship, and the shocks friendship can endure when it's true and deep. It's about the rueful pleasures (not to mention the jarring pitfalls) of getting old. It's about enduring tragedy, sickness, and loss. Thomas speaks of these big things by scattering the ordinary jewelry of everyday life: loving dogs (even when they chew your most precious possessions), Googling old boyfriends, rescuing an orphan mouse, and trees that try to grow in the crack between boards. Small speaks for large here, in a calm voice that talks to the mind while it fills the heart. Abigail Thomas is the Emily Dickinson of memoirists, and so much of this book's wisdom is between the lines and in the white spaces. It may only take you two days to read, but the impact will stay with you for a long, long time. Abigail Thomas fills memory with living breath."--Stephen King

"This may be the most honest book I've ever read, by one of the most beautiful writers I know-- dizzyingly truthful, often funny, lyrical, wise."--Anne Lamott

"I would follow Abigail Thomas on any journey she ever takes. The arrival of a new book from this master is always a cause for celebration, because I know right away that I'm about to learn something important about the art of writing and the art of living, both. I come to her books as though to a feast, and leave fulfilled and transformed."--Elizabeth Gilbert

"This episodic memoir is full of love and life. Readers will identify with the feelings and the people even as they realize how different they are, how wondrous."--Eloise Kinney "Booklist "

"Bighearted...frank and funny andunpretentious...[Thomas's] gratitude and amazement abound."--Catherine Newman "More "

"Irreverent, wise, and boundlessly generous."--Elissa Schappell "Vanity Fair "

"Full of love, humor, anger and a certain amount of uncertainty.... Although most of these passages are very short and read almost like journal entries, the overall picture Thomas conveys is that of the deep, soul-level relationships that exist between her and her family and with Chuck, connections that make all the highs and lows of life livable."--Lee E. Cart "Shelf Awareness "

"Beautifully written...wry...resilient. Her mature bones may not be all that flexible but her topics and sentences flip and cartwheel with the greatest of ease."--Maureen Corrigan "Fresh Air "

"Abigail Thomas knows adversity and how to make some kind of joy out of it... a meditation on aging and family that brings to mind Anne Lamott or Anna Quindlen... her gift is to never ponder too long on life's woes."--Nora Krug "The Washington Post "

"[Thomas] is in total control of the narrative even when she feels that she's not--a string of tragedies pieced together with undeterred grace....each scene feels fresh and alive."--Alex Layman "Kirkus Reviews "

About the Author

Abigail Thomas, the daughter of renowned science writer Lewis Thomas (The Lives of a Cell), is the mother of four children and the grandmother of twelve. She is the author of six previous books, including the memoir A Three Dog Life, which was named one of the best books of 2006 by the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. She teaches writing and lives in Woodstock.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1476785058
• ISBN 13: 9781476785059
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224