It's Only Temporary: The Good News and the Bad News of Being Alive - Softcover

Handler, Evan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 078675480X ISBN 13: 9780786754809

Publisher: Argo-Navis, 2012

Synopsis

What if you were supposed to die, but you didn’t? And what if, years later, your precious second chance didn’t turn out anything like you thought it would? That’s the journey Evan Handler experiences, and the one he explores in It’s Only Temporary: The Good News and the Bad News of Being Alive. In a collection of funny, offbeat, and poignant autobiographical essays, Handler moves beyond the supposedly ?incurable” illness he triumphed over in his mid-twenties--only to tumble through his thirties and forties in search of ever elusive love and happiness.

From bold attempts to rekindle his acting career to hapless efforts to run faster around New York’s Central Park reservoir, from bizarre Internet dates to twenty-seven breakups (involving only ten women), Handler careens through his against-all-odds existence. Always searching for meaning in his unlikely survival, he shares stories of sadistic junior high school gym teachers, bullying wannabe Hollywood moguls, returned engagement rings, and Europeans’ fascination with American bathroom habits.

Picking up ten years after his first book, Time on Fire, Handler again uses what the New York Times calls his ?laceratingly funny and revealing” storytelling skills to weave twenty-one new tales into a defiantly unconventional memoir. Consistently witty and insightful, Handler’s stories shift effortlessly from the comedic to the profound, musing with equal intensity on the existence of God and his experiences with TV stardom. Then, just when it seems he’s failed to make the most of his astonishing second chance, Handler finds his way to miracles even greater than the ones that saved his life. His memoir describes his journey from darkness to light, from yearning to gratitude, and in so doing succeeds as both a stirring love story and a classic coming-of-age tale. It’s Only Temporary celebrates the transformation of a boy to man—even if it look Handler more than forty years to get there.

About this title

About the Author

Evan Handler is an actor best known as Harry Goldenblatt from HBOÂ’s Sex and the City and the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Time on Fire: My Comedy of Terrors. Handler currently co-stars in ShowtimeÂ’s hit series Californication co-starring David Duchovny. His past acting credits include Lost, The West Wing, Ransom, and Taps. Handler also has written for Elle, Mirabella, O, the Oprah Magazine, USA Weekend, and The New Yorker.

From Publishers Weekly

Handler, Sex and the City star (Charlotte's bald, tubby husband) and author of the cancer-survival memoir Time on Fire, struggles to grow up in this collection of autobiographical essays. Handler has issues to rehash, including his bitterness over the years lost to illness, complaints about medical care he received, showbiz wrangles and, above all, his testy relationships with women. This last topic provokes both showy self-reproach and sly self-exculpation; [m]y progress toward maturity might have been lethargic, he allows, but it's inaccurate to state... that anything was 'my fault.'  Not the breakup with uncommunicative fiancée Patricia; or the rift with Abbey Leigh, a sexual dynamo given to screaming rages; or the jealous fit his future wife, Elisa, threw when he innocently mentioned another woman's breasts. Handler has funny stories to tell (one mega-agent suggested he package his bout with leukemia as an amusement park ride) and desultory thoughts to dispense (Do I think there's a God? I don't know). Unfortunately, his egotism often robs him of perspective, as when he jumbles together Elisa's abortion with his small-claims lawsuit over a botched floor refinishing. As Handler parades, bemoans—and excuses—his erstwhile callow self-involvement, his confessional drips with it. (May)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Argo-Navis
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 078675480X
• ISBN 13: 9780786754809
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 274