Life's That Way: A Memoir - Hardcover

Beaver, Jim

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399155643 ISBN 13: 9780399155642

Publisher: Putnam Adult, 2009

Synopsis

I'm no Job - though I think we went to the same school....So says Jim Beaver in this memoir.
In August 2003, Jim and his wife, Cecily, received what they thought was the worst news possible - their daughter, Maddie, was autistic. Then, six weeks later, the roof fell in - Cecily was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer.
Jim immediately began writing a nightly e-mail as a way to keep 125 family and friends up-to-date about Cecily's condition. Soon four thousand people around the world were reading it. Initially a cathartic exercise for Jim, the prose turned into an unforgettable journey for his readers. Life's That Way is a compilation of those e-mails; yet what started out as nightly missives makes for a unique and compelling, wholly original reading experience.
Life's That Way is not an author looking back on his experience with the advantage of hindsight - there is an immediacy to this book that is singular. While highly personal, Beaver's experience is at the same time universal for anybody who has lost a loved one.
But Life's That Way is not solely about loss. It is a day-by-day account of what it's like to discover the joy of a child, to be on the receiving end of unthinkable kindness, and to navigate life anew. As Beaver says, these are hard-won blessings. Then again, life's that way.

About this title

About the Author:

Jim Beaver is a writer and actor who recently starred as Ellsworth on HBO’s Emmy Award–winning series Deadwood. He played simultaneous roles on the hit shows Supernatural, Big Love, and John from Cincinnati. He will next be appearing on Harper’s Island, a new show to air on CBS in 2009. Beaver is also a nationally recognized playwright and stage actor, writing and acting in award-winning productions. A Vietnam vet and a native of Laramie, Wyoming, Beaver was married to Cecily Adams (daughter of Don Adams) from 1989 until her death in 2004.

Review:

"To have known and read this man over these years, reveals to me I knew nothing of what love could and should be." --Edward Asner

"When this journal first appeared, I learned to keep a jumbo-size box of tissues at the ready. You will cry-- and laugh--as Jim unwraps his unvarnished heart and soul. It will evoke memories of everyone who ever touched your heart and remind you to talk from your heart to the people who mean something to you." --Russell Friedman, coauthor of The Grief Recovery Handbook and When Children grieve

"Jim Beaver, the laconic character actor best known as the appealing prospector, "Ellsworth," on Deadwood has written a compassionate, funny, searing, and ultimately transcending memoir chronicling a year of tragedy, grief, and survival that would send the strongest of men, even an ex-marine and West Texas preacher's son, to their knees. As Jim puts it, "I'm no Job - though I think we went to the same school." That his story is so compulsively readable, inspiring, and ultimately hopeful is due entirely to Jim's bracing honesty, dry humor, and deeply felt humanity. Read this book, tell your friends about it, and then go hug your loved ones." --Robert Schenkkan, Pulitzer Prize winner for The Kentucky Cycle.

"Life's That Way is a gift of a book and one that will join Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking as a classic exploration of love and grief. It removes the clinical and focuses on the personal, revealing that "there's no end to the new ways one can experience such a cataclysm," and shows that, unbelievable as it is, life does go on. And we go with it. "I can't recommend this book highly enough. It will give you pause to reflect on your own relationships and experiences and to think about what your commitments really mean, and it will remind you that even in the worst of situations, people have a wonderful way of reaching out to help and support each other in astonishingly simple and profound ways. 5 out of 5." --Rebecca @ The Book Lady's Blog, May 5, 2009

About this edition

• Publisher: Putnam Adult
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0399155643
• ISBN 13: 9780399155642
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320