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The Best of Us: A Memoir Hardcover – September 5, 2017
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The San Francisco Chronicle's Best of the Year List
Indie Next Pick "For Reading Groups"
From New York Times bestselling author Joyce Maynard, a memoir about discovering strength in the midst of great loss--"heart wrenching, inspiring, full of joy and tears and life." (Anne Lamott)
In 2011, when she was in her late fifties, beloved author and journalist Joyce Maynard met the first true partner she had ever known. Jim wore a rakish hat over a good head of hair; he asked real questions and gave real answers; he loved to see Joyce shine, both in and out of the spotlight; and he didn’t mind the mess she made in the kitchen. He was not the husband Joyce imagined, but he quickly became the partner she had always dreamed of.
Before they met, both had believed they were done with marriage, and even after they married, Joyce resolved that no one could alter her course of determined independence. Then, just after their one-year wedding anniversary, her new husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. During the nineteen months that followed, as they battled his illness together, she discovered for the first time what it really meant to be a couple--to be a true partner and to have one.
This is their story. Charting the course through their whirlwind romance, a marriage cut short by tragedy, and Joyce’s return to singleness on new terms, The Best of Us is a heart-wrenching, ultimately life-affirming reflection on coming to understand true love through the experience of great loss.
- Print length448 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBloomsbury USA
- Publication dateSeptember 5, 2017
- Dimensions6.41 x 1.44 x 9.58 inches
- ISBN-101635570344
- ISBN-13978-1635570342
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"The Best of Us remind[s] readers to let go of superficial concerns and embrace a deeper appreciation for our lives and the people in them . . . Perhaps with 'The Best of Us,' 'Maynard' will come to have new definitions: Maynard (verb) 1. To find love later in life. 2. To do anything possible to help a loved one in crisis. 3. To let oneself be changed by love. 4. To write movingly about it all." - The San Francisco Chronicle
"This haunting story, penned by a master wordsmith, is a reminder to savor every loved one and every day." - starred review, Booklist
"In this touching memoir, Maynard (To Die For; At Home in the World) chronicles her second marriage. She beautifully renders the joy of falling in love later in life and the pain of watching her husband die of pancreatic cancer. Maynard's heartfelt story will resonate with those who have lost loved ones." - Publishers Weekly
"Joyce Maynard has been through so many ups and downs in her life and she communicates her love, pain and everything in between through her life affirming experiences, written with great emotion and clarity in this beautiful memoir. I highly recommend it." - BookTrib
"Maynard shows us her flaws, her exuberance, her willingness to take risks, to fall in love, and happily, finally, to discover what a mature marriage and loving relationship look like ― flaws, cancer and all. Her readers will do more than connect; they will laugh, cry and rekindle hope that the best of us just might be possible." - Charleston Post Courier
"There isn't a happy ending, but their journey is a beautiful one nonetheless." - Bustle
"Joyce Maynard's memoir The Best of Us--about her adored second husband--is brutally honest and deeply loving." - Woman's Day
"The famed novelist and memoirist on meeting the love of her life, marrying, and facing loss." - The Philadelphia Tribune, "Fall's Big Books"
"Joyce Maynard shares the heart-wrenching but ultimately hopeful story of finding love only to lose it a short time later in The Best of Us (Bloomsbury). - Parade, '4 Riveting Reads to Try This Fall'"
"[Maynard] delivers a moving tribute to [her husband's] memory and a thoughtful exploration of the connection between love and loss." - The San Jose Mercury News, "Books by the Bay"
"The Best of Us feels like a life come full circle, addressing a much more adult kind of love." - Signature Reads
"Joyce Maynard is getting up close and personal in The Best of Us." - 7x7
"The memoir is not about death so much as it is about finding in the deep shadows of illness obvious things, like appreciating time with loved ones and the value of dying at home and not in hospital. Importantly, it has Maynard discovering confidence, nobility, dignity and her best self." - The San Jose Mercury News
"Maynard as caretaker is a revelation, both beautiful and heart-wrenching--a role she undertakes (as everything grows harder) with grit, grace and growth. Her earlier memoirs may have had their naysayers, but no one can naysay The Best of Us." - The Buffalo News
"The Best of Us is both heartbreaking and uplifting, a chronicle of unlikely, unexpected romance and personal tragedy, as well as a meditation on the nature of love." - Omnivoracious
"In her poignant memoir about losing her husband to cancer, Maynard reminds readers to embrace a deeper appreciation for our lives and the people in them." - Best Books of the Year 2017, The San Francisco Chronicle
"The Best of Us is so candid, so deeply moving, so powerful . . . a testament to human resilience. Joyce Maynard is unfathomably heroic." - Joyce Carol Oates
"I love this new work. I think it is the most important writing of her life--profound, heart wrenching, inspiring, full of joy and tears and life." - Anne Lamott
"Joyce has captured her all too brief time with Jim in The Best of Us with her characteristic honesty and with so much love that my heart broke and soared on every page. Everyone needs to read this book." - Ann Hood
"Filled with passion and humor and beauty and aching sadness, The Best of Us gets at the heart of what love is: a willingness to open your heart completely to another person despite the risk of heartbreak." - Christina Baker Kline
"Maynard's lyrical, moving, break-your-heart memoir will make you love a little harder, appreciate each second a little more, and shake your world in the best of ways." - Caroline Leavitt
"This fiercely honest book is as much about life as it is about death. We understand the magnitude of Maynard’s loss because she has shown us the magnitude of her gain: the transformative joy of finding love in her late fifties. I could not stop turning the pages." - Anne Fadiman
"Joyce Maynard's memoir of life, death, and love is written with honesty, intimacy and a generosity of spirit that left me weeping, and in awe. I loved it." - Abigail Thomas
"The Best of Us is shattering in the best possible sense. With exquisite honesty, bravery, and large-heartedness, Joyce Maynard gives us a love story that we read breathlessly, even though we know how it will end. This is a beautiful story about the complexity of ever daring to adore another human being. I was moved and transfixed." - Dani Shapiro
"Oh! This book! Tender, insightful, ruminative, soaring. To find such love and then to lose it, and to capture so much of its beauty on the meager page--Joyce Maynard alchemizes life-numbing pain into dazzling prose." - Hope Edelman
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Bloomsbury USA; First Edition (September 5, 2017)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 448 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1635570344
- ISBN-13 : 978-1635570342
- Item Weight : 2.5 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.41 x 1.44 x 9.58 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #429,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,153 in Author Biographies
- #13,373 in Memoirs (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author
A native of New Hampshire, Joyce Maynard began publishing her stories in magazines when she was thirteen years old. She first came to national attention with the publication of her New York Times cover story, “An Eighteen Year Old Looks Back on Life”, in 1972, when she was a freshman at Yale.
Since then, she has been a reporter and columnist for The New York Times, a syndicated newspaper columnist whose “Domestic Affairs” column appeared in over fifty papers nationwide, a regular contributor to NPR and national magazines including Vogue, The New York Times Magazine, and many more, and a longtime performer with The Moth.
Maynard is the author of seventeen books, including the novel To Die For and the best-selling memoir, At Home in the World—translated into sixteen languages. Her novel, To Die For was adapted for the screen by Buck Henry for a film directed by Gus Van Sant , in which Joyce can be seen in the role of Nicole Kidman’s lawyer.. Her novel Labor Day was adapted and directed by Jason Reitman for a film starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin, to whom Joyce offered instruction for making the pie that appeared in a crucial scene in the film.
The mother of three grown children, Maynard runs workshops in memoir at her home in Lafayette California. In 2002 she founded The Lake Atitlan Writing Workshop in San Marcos La Laguna, Guatemala, where she hosts a weeklong workshop in personal storytelling every winter.
She is a fellow of The MacDowell Colony and Yaddo.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the story heartwarming, emotional, and meaningful. They praise the writing style as well-written, honest, and humble. Readers describe the book as wonderful, captivating, and perfect. They appreciate the author's honesty and openness. In addition, they describe the story as entertaining, compelling, and interesting.
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Customers find the story heartwarming, deep, and emotional. They say it's meaningful, moving, and good for their souls. Readers also mention the memoir rings true and is told with toughness.
"...Life is full of so much. Love, laughter, people we love and lose, relationships, sadness, disappointment, and moments that surprise and soar...." Read more
"...It was a deep and penetrating experience of love and loss, and the richness that comes with a shared loving partnership. I highly recommend this book." Read more
"Maynard's memoir, a heart-twisting, beautifully- rendered story, chronicles her relatively late-in-life big love with her second husband, Jim...." Read more
"...Their love was so profound, deep, and unforgettable! It reminds us all to savor each and every memory because you will need them later...." Read more
Customers find the writing style well-written, honest, and humble. They also say the book is comprehensive, beautiful, and easy to listen to.
"...We understand.At the end of almost every chapter, there is a simple, but profoundly poignant point offered by Joyce, a takeaway even,..." Read more
"...It was written with such love that it enabled one to not focus on the horrible thing CANCER but to refocus on the MOMENT!!..." Read more
"...these two and demonstrated the value of their connection, is presented in her clear, unembellished prose style...." Read more
"...her late-in-life partnership/marriage to her husband Jim in the most transparent, heart wrenching, and thought provoking way: writing as only Joyce..." Read more
Customers find the book wonderful, perfect, and captivating. They say it's profound, deep, and unforgettable. Readers also mention the memoir is important and thorough.
"This book was sad and magnificent at the same time...." Read more
"...This is a good read, both sad and triumphant. Death prevails, but love burnishes each moment and every memory...." Read more
"...Their love was so profound, deep, and unforgettable! It reminds us all to savor each and every memory because you will need them later...." Read more
"...Her story is rich, layered, heartwarming and heartbreaking, extraordinary and familiar all at once...." Read more
Customers find the memoir honest, unflinching, and raw. They appreciate the author's trademark honesty and raw wit. Readers also mention the emotional honesty is a balm and blessing.
"...What I love most about Joyce Maynard's writing is the honesty...." Read more
"...I admire Maynard's energy, her honesty and her skill as a writer. I would recommend this memoir highly." Read more
"...The emotional honesty was a balm and a blessing and I'm grateful for it." Read more
"...I love Joyce Maynard's writing and her generosity. She shares the most intimate details of her life, so that we can read and nod our heads and cry..." Read more
Customers find the story entertaining, compelling, and interesting. They also say the subplots are intriguing and the moments surprise and soar. Readers describe the book as captivating, enjoyable, and emotional.
"...love and lose, relationships, sadness, disappointment, and moments that surprise and soar...." Read more
"...Even the subplots were interesting - I did not know about the Ethiopian adoption. Fascinating...." Read more
"...Her story is rich, layered, heartwarming and heartbreaking, extraordinary and familiar all at once...." Read more
"...A very disturbing read that I won't so soon forget." Read more
Customers find the book heartbreaking, honest, and raw.
"I really loved this book. It's a raw and honest look at what it's like to care for someone with cancer and what it's like to let go...." Read more
"...Very raw, true and heartwarming. I'm going to read it again and would highly recommend the book...." Read more
"...I'm struggling with the words to do this book justice. Raw, heartfelt, REAL, beautifully done." Read more
"Heartbreaking, honest, and raw: Joyce Maynard at her finest..." Read more
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She lost her love too soon. She tells us everything; things we don’t want to hear, but know she must say, about cancer and what you do when the person you love most is dying. Or before you know he is dying and you are frantically trying to find what will save him, and save you. But her fans have been around a day or two. We’ve seen cancer, and death, and pain, and disappointments along with our own hilltop moments. We understand.
At the end of almost every chapter, there is a simple, but profoundly poignant point offered by Joyce, a takeaway even, for us all. For example, while addressing a frustration over an inconvenience due to her husband losing his car keys, she writes, “In the old days, I would have made some sharp remark. How could he? I didn’t do those things anymore. ‘If only,’ I often said, ‘you could learn the lessons of cancer without having cancer.’”
She writes with candor, her signature, of course, in ways that sometimes make you wince and want to look away from plenty of ugly situations, not only of the cancer journey that we know won’t end well, but of heart-rending situations before the two found each other. We’re reminded of our own, personal, look-away moments. Who doesn’t have them? We probably are prone to hide them away rather than put them out there.
The joy that sparkles in this book is that Joyce and Jim found each other, and got to experience travel and life and love in a condensed form that I would call blessings.
Joyce and I are two different women in more obvious ways than we are alike. Yet perhaps at the heart of our curious connection is this shared core belief: That it isn’t real until it’s written. And that we don’t get to choose our life stories. They choose us. Then we tell them.
She spent a year after Jim’s death writing this book, and now she’s touring with it, something she revels in, and finds energy from. Writing a book is necessarily a solo experience with quiet and isolation. Joyce recharges by meeting her readers, hearing how they identify with her words, and how she identifies with them.
She will survive this. Jim had said he only wanted to be her good husband. He regretted, perhaps more than anything, the burden he would say he became to her, the pain his pain caused her. The way she can honor him now, I believe, is to press on and have a wonderful life, find new love and joy and, (I would add, most of all) faith.
I will stay tuned to hear hers. There will be new ones to find and I know she will write about them all. I hope that the next chapter will be one that makes her heart sing. Life is full of so much. Love, laughter, people we love and lose, relationships, sadness, disappointment, and moments that surprise and soar. She’s not done, this woman who chronicles life for the Baby Boomer generation.
I still see the two of them, Joyce and Jim, on that New Hampshire hilltop four years ago. They had it all.
From them, let us remember that our days are likewise numbered. And to cherish each and every one we get.