To Love What Is: A Marriage Transformed - Hardcover

Shulman, Alix Kates

4.07

219 ratings by Goodreads

9780374278151: To Love What Is: A Marriage Transformed

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374278156 ISBN 13: 9780374278151

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2008

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A personal story of crisis, commitment, and hope from the best-selling author of Memoirs of An Ex-Prom Queen One day it happens, the dreaded thing that will change your life forever, the more dreadful because, though you've half expected it, you don't know what form it will take or when it will come, and whether or not you will rise to the challenge. For Alix Kates Shulman, it happened on July 22, 2004, at two a.m. on a coastal Maine island in a remote seaside cabin with no electricity, running water, or road to reach it-where the very isolation that makes it a perfect artist's retreat renders it as risky as life itself. She woke to find that her beloved seventy-five-year-old husband had fallen the nine feet from their sleeping loft and was lying on the floor below, naked and deathly still. Though Scott would survive, he suffered an injury that left him seriously brain impaired. He was the same-but not the same. Each of us has imagined with dread the occurrence of just such an event outside our control that will permanently alter the course of our lives. In this elegant memoir, Shulman describes life on the other side: the ongoing anxieties and risks-and surprising rewards-she experiences as she reorganizes her world and her priorities to care for her husband and discovers that what might have seemed a grim life sentence to some has evolved into something unexpectedly rich.

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Product Description:

The author of Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen and Drinking the Rain recounts the accident that brain-damaged her beloved husband, describing her struggles with anxiety and the less-anticipated impact of her caregiver's role on her career.

Review:

“An extraordinary and important book.” —Oliver Sacks
“Remarkable . . . [A] brave, elegiac work. Both hopeful and terrifying, it’s a tale of love’s resilience, but also its limits in conquering the sudden cruelties of life . . .A haunting meditation on a love more enduring than the body or mind, and . . . a potent reminder that even an irreparably altered life is still a life to be cherished.” —Renee Graham, "The Boston Globe
"“This is the story of great love forged when death almost parts you and then doesn’t—a book that will take its place next to those slender volumes that become tattered and torn as I read and reread and reread, as if my own life depended on it. "To Love What Is "is Alix Kates Shulman’s masterpiece.” —Honor Moore, author of "The Bishop’s Daughter"

“This remarkable book speaks openly and honestly and with exquisite poignancy about the durability of love.”

"An extraordinary and important book." --Oliver Sacks
"Remarkable . . . [A] brave, elegiac work. Both hopeful and terrifying, it's a tale of love's resilience, but also its limits in conquering the sudden cruelties of life . . .A haunting meditation on a love more enduring than the body or mind, and . . . a potent reminder that even an irreparably altered life is still a life to be cherished." --Renee Graham, "The Boston Globe
""This is the story of great love forged when death almost parts you and then doesn't--a book that will take its place next to those slender volumes that become tattered and torn as I read and reread and reread, as if my own life depended on it. "To Love What Is "is Alix Kates Shulman's masterpiece." --Honor Moore, author of "The Bishop's Daughter"

"This remarkable book speaks openly and honestly and with exquisite poignancy about the durability of love." --Andrew Solomon, author of "The Noonday Demon"

An extraordinary and important book. "Oliver Sacks"

Remarkable . . . [A] brave, elegiac work. Both hopeful and terrifying, it's a tale of love's resilience, but also its limits in conquering the sudden cruelties of life . . .A haunting meditation on a love more enduring than the body or mind, and . . . a potent reminder that even an irreparably altered life is still a life to be cherished. "Renee Graham, The Boston Globe"

This is the story of great love forged when death almost parts you and then doesn't--a book that will take its place next to those slender volumes that become tattered and torn as I read and reread and reread, as if my own life depended on it. "To Love What Is "is Alix Kates Shulman's masterpiece. "Honor Moore, author of The Bishop's Daughter"

This remarkable book speaks openly and honestly and with exquisite poignancy about the durability of love. "Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon""

"An extraordinary and important book." --Oliver Sacks

"Remarkable . . . [A] brave, elegiac work. Both hopeful and terrifying, it's a tale of love's resilience, but also its limits in conquering the sudden cruelties of life . . .A haunting meditation on a love more enduring than the body or mind, and . . . a potent reminder that even an irreparably altered life is still a life to be cherished." --Renee Graham, The Boston Globe

"This is the story of great love forged when death almost parts you and then doesn't--a book that will take its place next to those slender volumes that become tattered and torn as I read and reread and reread, as if my own life depended on it. To Love What Is is Alix Kates Shulman's masterpiece." --Honor Moore, author of The Bishop's Daughter

"This remarkable book speaks openly and honestly and with exquisite poignancy about the durability of love." --Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon

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