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    Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful: A Tragicomic Memoir of Genius, Heroin, Love, and Loss

    by LITHOBREA, Aziz Ansari (Foreword by)

    Hardcover

    $25.99
    $25.99

    Temporarily Out of Stock Online

    Customer Reviews

    • ISBN-13: 9781492664109
    • Publisher: Sourcebooks
    • Publication date: 02/26/2018
    • Pages: 288
    • Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 6.00(h) x (d)
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    The space between life and death is a moment.
    But it will remain alive in me for hundreds of thousands of future moments.

    One phone call. That's all it took to change Stephanie Wittels Wachs' life forever..

    Her younger brother Harris, a star in the comedy world known for his work on shows like Parks and Recreation, had died of a heroin overdose. How do you make sense of such a tragic end to a life of so much hilarious brilliance?

    In beautiful, unsentimental, and surprisingly funny prose, Stephanie Wittels Wachs alternates between her brother's struggle with addiction, which she learned about three days before her wedding, and the first year after his death, in all its emotional devastation. This compelling portrait of a comedic genius and a profound exploration of the love between siblings is A Year of Magical Thinking for a new generation of readers.

    A heartbreaking but hopeful memoir of addiction, grief, and family, Everything is Horrible and Wonderful will make you laugh, cry, and wonder if that possum on the fence is really your brother's spirit animal.

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    From the Publisher
    "Beautiful, funny, and epically poignant." - Sarah Silverman

    "Stephanie Wittels Wachs is honest, funny, moving, and so likable. She shows us the messy truth about losing someone you love - that there is no map for its tremendous pain and unexpected moments of joy." - Kerry Cohen, author of Loose Girl and Lush

    "Human and heartbreaking, this sister's story of living with and losing a brother to addiction is a doozy. A great read and an intimate and illuminating account of an addict's impact on a family." - Bill Clegg, author of Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man and Did You Ever Have a Family

    "Incredible." - Aziz Ansari

    "Every minute more of us know the unique pain of helplessly watching someone we care about descend into the pit of addiction. Stephanie Wittels Wachs has been there, and she emerges with her wit, wisdom, and spirit intact. This remarkable and movingly told story will break and mend hearts." - David Sheff, author of Beautiful Boy and Clean

    "Brutally honest and honestly beautiful,Everything Is Horrible and Wonderfulis so much more than a story ofhow addiction can tear a family apart; it's a magnificent tribute to a brother and to the perfectly imperfect family that we all have.The clarity with which Stephanie Wittels Wachs describes addiction, death and its aftermath comes through on every page...she lays bare the ugliest truths without demonizing the destructive behavior of an addict. Threaded through with the fiercest unconditional love, this is an absolutely gorgeous book." - Matt Logelin, author of Two Kisses for Maddy

    "In unflinching detail and with remarkable openness, Wachs describes the ugly and complicated nature of mourning someone who was not only a brother and best friend, but also an addict, a public figure, and a comedic genius whose life was cut off at the very cusp of success...a powerful debut that will resonate especially with readers who have loved and lost someone to addiction.

    " - Kirkus

    "Unsentimental and at times even funny, Everything is Horrible and Wonderful is Wachs' journey to make sense of the senseless, to move from grief to hope, and to let humor light the way." - Bustle

    "Harrowing, heartbreaking, and cathartic memoir...Wachs writes with immense love, humor, and humanity...Everything about this book is horrible, wonderful, timely, and not to be missed." - Booklist

    Kirkus Review
    2017-12-24
    A penetrating story about the author's experience witnessing addiction claim her brother's life.Writer, theater artist, and educator Wachs and her younger brother, Harris Wittels (1984-2015), a comedian best known for his work on Parks and Recreation, were practically inseparable as children, and they grew up to become best friends as adults. So when Harris confessed to being a drug addict three days before the author's wedding, Wachs was understandably devastated. Over the next few years, as Harris battled his addiction and bounced in and out of rehab, the author gave birth to a baby with a permanent hearing disability and was suddenly faced with the emotional stress of worrying about her child's future while simultaneously fearing for her brother's life. Her worst nightmare became a reality when she got a phone call telling her that Harris died of an overdose, alone in his Los Angeles home, just days before he was set to move to New York for a new job. The narrative alternates between stories from before the tragedy—what growing up in the Wittels home was like, how Harris fell in love with comedy and turned it into a career, how Wachs started her own family, how everyone dealt with Harris' addiction—and the author's descriptions of life "after," in which she speaks directly and candidly to her brother about the year that followed. In unflinching detail and with remarkable openness, Wachs describes the ugly and complicated nature of mourning someone who was not only a brother and best friend, but also an addict, a public figure, and a comedic genius whose life was cut off at the very cusp of success. Photos, texts, and correspondences, along with a touching foreword by comedian, actor, and close friend Aziz Ansari, enhance an already rich book.A powerful debut that will resonate especially with readers who have loved and lost someone to addiction.

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