What Comes Next and How to Like It - Softcover

Thomas, Abigail

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1594139407 ISBN 13: 9781594139406

Publisher: Large Print Pr, 2016

Synopsis

In her bestselling and beloved memoir A Three Dog Life, Abigail Thomas wrote about the tragic loss of her husband. In What Comes Next and How to Like It, she writes about aging, family, creativity, tragedy, friendship, and the richness of life. And it is exhilarating.

What comes next? What comes after the devastating loss of a spouse? What form does a lifelong friendship take after deepest betrayal? How does a mother cope with her child s dire illness? Or the death of a cherished dog?

And how to like it? How to accept, appreciate, enjoy? How to find solace and pleasure? How to sustain and be sustained by our most trusted, valuable companions?

Exquisitely observed, lush with sentences you will underline and reread, What Comes Next and How to Like It is an extraordinarily moving memoir about many of life s greatest challenges and inimitable rewards. It is also the story of the friendship between Abigail Thomas and a man she met thirty-five years ago. Through marriages, child raising, and the vicissitudes and tragedies that befall them both, this rich bond has helped her face whatever comes next with courage, exuberance, and grace."

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 "

"Infused with [Thomas's] signature sense of mordancy and wit.... all about depth offeeling, the experience of being a mother and a friend...its disparate piecesfall into exquisite place."--David Ulin "Los Angeles Times "

"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 "

""What Comes Next and How to Like It "is the story ofhow Abigail Thomas manages to survive all the beauty and sadness life has givenher. If you only read one book this year, make it this one."--Ann Patchett

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: Large Print Pr
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1594139407
• ISBN 13: 9781594139406
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 301