Review
“In
It's Only Temporary, Evan Handler confronts the ambiguities of life backward, forward, and in between. With hilarious honesty he reflects on the realization that we can start over again.
It's Only Temporary is a heartfelt book for all of us who are getting younger and older at the same time.”
—Amy Tan, author of
The Joy Luck Club, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, and
The Kitchen God’s Wife “In a series of wonderful essays, Evan Handler gives himself up to us - warts and all. To our amusement and bemusement we share in his emotional growth as he struggles to mature. I not only laughed along with him but felt that I too had grown a little along the way. Who could ask for more?”
—Lewis Black, comedian,
Daily Show correspondent, and author of
Nothing's Sacred “Evan Handler's new book is simply wonderful. He pulls you inside his life, and you come out his very close friend.”
—Neil Simon, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright/screenwriter of
Lost In Yonkers, The Odd Couple, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and
The Goodbye Girl “Evan Handler is a man who’s looked into the abyss and laughed. His book,
It’s Only Temporary, made me laugh along with him. He covers love, lust, showbiz, triumph, and despair – and he manages to be both funny and inspiring about all of it. It’s an important book that I think can help to spread goodness around the world. Something we desperately need.”
—Lance Armstrong, seven time Tour de France Champion; Founder, The Lance Armstrong Foundation
“Evan Handler is not only a fine actor, he’s a damn good writer.
It’s Only Temporary is wise and funny and as righteously indignant as it is endearingly self-effacing. In what may be a literary first, the book actually left me wanting more.”
—Meghan Daum, author of
My Misspent Youth and
The Quality of Life Report “Evan Handler's unsparingly honest stories about life, love, and his own shortcomings are hilarious to read and oh, so easy (and fun!) to relate to. By the end you will be left with the surprising but unmistakable feelings of hope and redemption.
It’s Only Temporary is truly an inspiration, particularly for anyone who's out there looking for love.”
—Liz Tuccillo, co-author of
He’s Just Not That Into You “Change is good - that’s the credo Evan Handler reinvigorates with the hard won wisdom of this hard luck story. Handler’s prose style is disarmingly funny and smoothly conversational. He writes like a guy who's just happy to be here, and a little pissed off at you if you're not. As he has worked hard to shape himself into a good actor, life has shaped him into a good man. The cover photo is worth the price alone.”
—David Duchovny, actor, director, screenwriter
Product Description
A provocative, funny, and whip- smart memoir of how one man learned to find joy in his own life after years of hand-to-hand combat with death. Actor and author Evan Handler’s new book,
It’s Only Temporary, is both a deeply personal memoir and a series of meditations on life, love, faith, gratitude, and mortality. In closely examining his own triumphs, mistakes, and less-than-ideal relationships since his miraculous recovery from a supposedly incurable leukemia more than twenty years ago, Handler zeroes in on the most profound question facing every human being: How can a person live well with the knowledge that time is limited? In doing so, Handler has created a poignant and wildly funny rumination on the ironies of human existence.
Structured as a collection of incisive and probing autobiographical stories ,
It’s Only Temporary is a startlingly candid portrait of one man’s struggle to find love and happiness within a life he knows he’s lucky just to have. By turns hilarious and heart-wrenching, blunt and shocking, Handler’s defiantly unconventional memoir ultimately succeeds as both a stirring love story and a classic coming-of-age tale. It’s
Only Temporary celebrates the transformation from boy to man—even if it took Handler more than forty years to get there.
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