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Flatiron Books
March 2015
On Sale: March 11, 2015
ISBN: 1250068827 EAN: 9781250068828 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Memoir
Dave Eggers meets David Sedaris in this uproariously funny,
unflinchingly honest, and tender memoir. Dan's mom has always had cancer. First diagnosed when he was
only ten years old, she was the model of resilience
throughout his childhood, fighting her disease with tenacity
and a mouth foul enough to make a sailor blush. But just as
she faces a relapse, her husband —a successful businessman
and devoted father—is diagnosed with ALS. He is told that in
a few months' time, he be unable to walk, eat, or breathe on
his own. Dan, a recent college graduate living the good life
in Los Angeles, has no choice but to return home to help. Reinstalled in his parents' basement (in one of the only
non-Mormon homes in a Salt Lake City subdivision) Dan is
reunited with his siblings. His older sister Tiffany is
resentful, having stayed closer to home to bear the brunt of
their mother's illness. Younger brother Greg comes to lend a
hand, giving up a journalism career and evenings cruising
Chicago gay bars. Younger sister Michelle is a sullen
teenager experimenting with drinking and flirting with her
35-year-old soccer coach. And baby sister Chelsea—the oddest
duck in a family of misfits—can only think about dance.
Together they form Team Terminal, going to battle against
their parents' illnesses and cracking plenty of jokes along
the way. As Dan steps into his role as caregiver, wheelchair
wrangler, and sibling referee, he watches pieces of his
previous life slip away, and comes to realize that you don't
get to choose when it's time to grow up.
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