Author Description

Product Description Benjamin Benjamin has lost virtually everything—his wife, his family, his home, his livelihood. With few options, Ben enrolls in a night class called The Fundamentals of Caregiving taught in the basement of a local church. There Ben is instructed in the art of inserting catheters and avoiding liability, about professionalism, and how to keep physical and emotional distance between client and provider. But when Ben is assigned to nineteen-year-old Trev, who is in the advanced stages of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, he discovers that the endless mnemonics and service plan checklists have done little to prepare him for the reality of caring for a fiercely stubborn, sexually frustrated adolescent. As they embark on a wild road trip across the American West to visit Trev’s ailing father, a new camaraderie replaces the traditional boundary between patient and caregiver. Bursting with energy, this big-hearted, soulful, and inspired novel ponders life’s terrible surprises and the heart’s uncanny capacity to mend and become whole again. Review "A journey back to life...Bittersweet...It's moving and funny, and, my God, how refreshing it is to read a story about someone caring for a disabled person that isn't gauzed in sentimentality or bitterness."-- "Washington Post" "A warm, funny look at recovering from tragedy."-- "Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel" "A zany road trip from grief to grace...[A] sometimes funny, sometimes slapstick, big-hearted novel."-- "Oregonian" "Engaging...The journey is reckless and wild, infused with the sad rage that makes good comedy great...As this carload of misfits moves east, relationships are broken and forged, and Ben recreates a kind of family. This could be horribly clichéd and yet it isn't, because Evison never bows to what we expect from happy endings."-- "New York Times Book Review" "Evison has given us a salty-sweet story about ab