Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful
Ratings2
Average rating5
15
Ratings2
Average rating5
The space between life and death is a moment. But it will remain alive in me for hundreds of thousands of future moments. One phone call. That's all it took to change Stephanie Wittels Wachs' life forever.. Her younger brother Harris, a star in the comedy world known for his work on shows like Parks and Recreation, had died of a heroin overdose. How do you make sense of such a tragic end to a life of so much hilarious brilliance? In beautiful, unsentimental, and surprisingly funny prose, Stephanie Wittels Wachs alternates between her brother's struggle with addiction, which she learned about three days before her wedding, and the first year after his death, in all its emotional devastation. This compelling portrait of a comedic genius and a profound exploration of the love between siblings is A Year of Magical Thinking for a new generation of readers. A heartbreaking but hopeful memoir of addiction, grief, and family, Everything is Horrible and Wonderful will make you laugh, cry, and wonder if that possum on the fence is really your brother's spirit animal.
Reviews with the most likes.
Holy shit.
That's how I felt on every page of this book. It ripped me raw in the best of ways. Wittels Wach is a phenomenal writer, but she writes real. Really real. The frustration. The fatigue. The emptiness. But also the laughter. It's so, so rare to find a book that can make you crack a smile through tears. It doesn't matter if you don't know who Harris Wittels was or have never enjoyed his work (and if that's so – who are you??). It doesn't matter if you've never had an addict in your life. It doesn't matter if the sun is shining and you found out you won the lottery in a pile of snuggly puppies and it's the happiest day of your life; you read this book and it smacks you hard with grief, bringing you right to the moment where life pivots, and all that precedes and proceeds from that hard stop; every page is a beautiful fucking whirlwind and I couldn't put it down.
I'll forever carry the titular line with me, a fantastic quote from Harris: “We are all horrible and wonderful and figuring it out.” But also: “Waldo asked me to spot him at the gym. Couldn't do it.” And also: “Aw man, when eye boogers turn sharp, forget about it.” And pretty much every quote he has about Phish. And Chilis. Ugh whatta guy. Rest in peace, dude.
If you have a heart, this book will rip it out . . . continually.
Harris was one of the funniest people on the planet, hands down. I miss seeing his name pop up in my podcast feed as a guest on shows like Comedy Bang! Bang! and Who Charted, or trying to convince Scott Aukerman that Phish was a good band on Analyze Phish.
I was just a fan, though. Reading how his sister and family have had to deal with this tragedy was gut-wrenching. I tend to forget most of a book pretty quickly after reading it, but I don't think this one is leaving my memory anytime soon, if ever.
