Synopses & Reviews
Juggled between an endless succession of friends, relatives, anarchist boarding schools, libertarian commune dwellers, socialist rebels, and born-again circus clowns, Oran Canfield grew up viewing the inconsistencies of the world with a wary eye. The son of Jack Canfield—the motivational speaker and creator of
Chicken Soup for the Soul—Oran is intensely self-conscious and reserved, but his life can't seem to leave him alone. Whether he's teaching two hundred eager self-help disciples to juggle (among them a woman with stumps for hands), dodging a series of wacky near-death experiences, delivering newspapers in satin pants on a unicycle, or experimenting with drugs in the back of a Mexican cop car at age thirteen, one thing's for sure: Oran's life is much stranger than fiction.
With mordant wit, Long Past Stopping grapples with the paradoxes of a mad world and shows that feel-good nostrums go only so far. Sometimes the only way out is the hard way.
Review
“An oddly compelling and appealing account of a life truly stranger than fiction.” Booklist
Review
“Memoirs about dysfunctional families can be funny, and this book is hilarious… [Canfield] delivers newspapers on a unicycle, wins third place in a juggling competition and experiments with drugs in a Mexican police cruiser. His descriptions are snappy and his side commentary…[makes] you laugh out loud.” Associated Press
Review
“Thank god Oran Canfield came out of this alive and thank double-god he emerged with his sense of humor. So many weirdball characters and harrowing situations that youd be hard-pressed to make up better ones. This is the kind of life story that begs to be told.” Beth Lisick author of Helping Me Help Myself
Review
“The son of Chicken Soup for the Soul creator Jack Canfield debuts with a memoir of a peripatetic West Coast childhood and subsequent struggle with drug addiction, told in a series of humorous vignettes… The authors deadpan irony is…brilliant…” Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
Oran Canfield son of self-help guru and Chicken Soup for the Soul "creator Jack Canfield tells his surreal story of growing up in Long Past Stopping. "In this remarkable memoir, writing with a wry and cutting edge, Canfield relates tales of a childhood in flux being buffeted about among family friends, relatives, rebels, and born-again circus clowns, in an anarchist private school, communes, and libertarian enclaves and of a young adulthood spent among the ruins of heroin addiction. Long Past Stopping "is Oran Canfield s often hilariously harrowing tale of surviving life in the strange lane."
Synopsis
From the son of Jack Canfield, creator of the bestselling self-help series Chicken Soup for the Soul, comes a wry, edgy, and often hilarious memoir about his struggle to overcome a childhood dismantled by hypocrisy and an adulthood plagued by heroin addiction.
Synopsis
Oran Canfield—son of self-help guru and Chicken Soup for the Soul creator Jack Canfield—tells his surreal story of growing up in Long Past Stopping. In this remarkable memoir, writing with a wry and cutting edge, Canfield relates tales of a childhood in flux—being buffeted about among family friends, relatives, rebels, and born-again circus clowns, in an anarchist private school, communes, and libertarian enclaves—and of a young adulthood spent among the ruins of heroin addiction. Long Past Stopping is Oran Canfields often hilariously harrowing tale of surviving life in the strange lane.
About the Author
Oran Canfield was raised in Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Central America, New Mexico, Arizona, and the San Francisco Bay area. While attending the San Francisco Art Institute, Oran began his career as a drummer and became heavily involved in San Francisco's flourishing underground music and art communities. Along with his involvement as a drummer for numerous bands in the nineties, he also owned and operated a recording studio and cooperated a music venue featuring experimental and creative jazz music. He has also been a bike messenger, piano restorer, housecleaner, limo driver, and sex-toy maker. Early in 2001, after seven separate stints in rehab, he got clean after attending an experimental treatment center in the Caribbean islands. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and works as a musician and freelance art handler.