Synopses & Reviews
In the tradition of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and Truth and Beauty — from one of Variety’s “10 Comics to Watch,” a poignant tragicomic memoir about the author’s beautiful, funny, and heartbreaking relationship with his younger sister and the depression that took her life.
Adam Cayton-Holland went from a painfully sensitive kid growing up in Denver, Colorado, to a writer and performer with a burgeoning career in comedy. His father, a civil rights lawyer, and his mother, an investigative journalist, taught Adam and his two sisters to feel the pain of the world deeply and to combat it through any means necessary. Adam chose to meet life’s tough breaks and cruel realities with stand-up comedy; his older sister chose law; their youngest sister, Lydia, struggled with mental illness and ultimately took her own life.
This devastating tragedy strikes the Cayton-Holland household at the same moment Adam’s career is finally getting off the ground. Both a moving tribute to a lost sibling and an inspiring guide to navigating grief and pain, Tragedy Plus Time is a heartbreaking, honest, and darkly funny memoir about trying your hardest to choose life in the wake of a terrible loss.
Review
“Self-mockery and true pathos make for a powerful mixture in this nuanced memoir....Cayton-Holland’s wry and wiry voice here elegantly transitions from half-cynical stand-up pose to thoughtful interpretation of the contradictions of grief (“I like to remember her constantly; I try not to think of her at all”) without losing a beat. This is a vivid and heartbreaking account of two bright lives, one blessed with hard-fought success and one cut painfully short.” Publishers Weekly
Review
“Tragedy Plus Time absolutely gutted me — then it filled me with hope. I hate that Adam has this story to tell, but he tells it so beautifully.” Tig Notaro
Review
“Adam has made me laugh many times. This is the first time he has made me cry. A gorgeous work about accepting the unthinkable with grace, humor, and love. Essential reading for anyone who has ever lost someone, anyone who has ever grieved someone, or anyone who has ever loved someone.” Kumail Nanjiani, Academy Award-nominated writer and star of The Big Sick
Review
“This book is so heartfelt and brilliant that I’ve informed my lawyers not to proceed with the lawsuit for plagiarism against the title. And it was looking like a big win, money-wise. Oh well.” Patton Oswalt
Synopsis
"Inspiring, tragic, and at times heart-rendingly funny." --People Unsentimental, unexpectedly funny, and incredibly honest, Tragedy Plus Time is a love letter to every family that has ever felt messy, complicated, or (even momentarily) magnificent.
Meet the Magnificent Cayton-Hollands, a trio of brilliant, acerbic teenagers from Denver, Colorado, who were going to change the world. Anna, Adam, and Lydia were taught by their father, a civil rights lawyer, and mother, an investigative journalist, to recognize injustice and have their hearts open to the universe--the good, the bad, the heartbreaking (and, inadvertently, the anxiety-inducing and the obsessive-compulsive disorder-fueling).
Adam chose to meet life's tough breaks and cruel realities with stand-up comedy; his older sister, Anna, chose law; while their youngest sister, Lydia, struggled to find her place in the world. Beautiful and whip-smart, Lydia was witty, extremely sensitive, fiercely stubborn, and always somewhat haunted. She and Adam bonded over comedy from a young age, running skits in their basement and obsessing over episodes of The Simpsons.
When Adam sunk into a deep depression in college, it was Lydia who was able to reach him and pull him out. But years later as Adam's career takes off, Lydia's own depression overtakes her, and, though he tries, Adam can't return the favor. When she takes her own life, the family is devastated, and Adam throws himself into his stand-up, drinking, and rage. He struggles with disturbing memories of Lydia's death and turns to EMDR therapy to treat his post-traumatic stress disorder when he realizes there's a difference between losing and losing it.
Adam Cayton-Holland is a tremendously talented writer and comedian, uniquely poised to take readers to the edges of comedy and tragedy, brilliance and madness. Tragedy Plus Time is a revelatory, darkly funny, and poignant tribute to a lost sibling that will have you reaching for the phone to call your brother or sister by the last page.
About the Author
Adam Cayton-Holland is a national touring comic who has appeared on Conan, @midnight, The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail, Happy Endings, Deadbeat, Flophouse, Hidden America With Jonah Ray, and was named one of Esquire’s “25 Comics to Watch” and Variety’s “10 Comics to Watch.” Adam cocreated, writes, and stars in truTV’s Those Who Can’t along with his fellow members of the comedy troupe, The Grawlix. His albums I Don’t Know If I Happy and Backyards are available on iTunes, and his writing has appeared in Village Voice, Spin, The A.V. Club, and The Atlantic. Adam has been described as “genial” and “with pretty decent teeth.” He is the author of Tragedy Plus Time.
Adam Cayton-Holland on PowellsBooks.Blog
Come sunrise, we were sworn enemies. Because I was a morning person and my little sister Lydia was a demon. At least when she first woke up. My internal clock would go off five minutes before my mom was due to wake me up, a good little solider ready to attack the day. Lydia slept like a gin-drunk: sheets pulled in every direction, her body set at painful angles...
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