Tragedy Plus Time, Adam CaytonHolland
Tragedy Plus Time, Adam CaytonHolland
2 Rating(s)
List: $18.99 | Sale: $13.29
Club: $9.49

Tragedy Plus Time
A Tragi-comic Memoir

Author: Adam Cayton-Holland

Narrator: Adam Cayton-Holland

Unabridged: 5 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/21/2018


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 Adam Cayton-Holland

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 co-created, 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


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sarah on May 31, 2018

Have you heard any of Adam Cayton-Holland's standup comedy routine yet? If not, first go online and find it. My favorite is his bit about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (but then again, I'm a giant bird nerd... however even if you're not, it's downright hilarious). Get yourself laughing and hear what h......more

Goodreads review by Amalia on February 27, 2023

My professional views on EMDR notwithstanding (yes, it works! Because it's exposure therapy, not because of the eye movements! I digress) this memoir by a college friend-quaintance was a gorgeous and heart-rending window into the experience of loving and losing someone whose mental illness gripped h......more

Goodreads review by Sharon on March 18, 2019

A mixed bag. The family stuff rings true. The comic aspect falls flat because all the author does is tell you how funny he is...show don't tell is a solid rule of writing, fiction or non-fiction. And I probably should not have read this book about a sister's death when I am in between the anniversar......more