Devastated, Caldwell could bring herself to write only one sentence about the loss: “I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died, so we shared that, too.” Eventually, that heartbreaking line became the opening sentence of Let’s Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship, Caldwell’s gorgeous–and strikingly honest–love letter to Knapp and their deeply devoted friendship.įrom her home in Cambridge, Caldwell spoke with SMITH about Knapp and Let’s Take the Long Way Home–why it was necessary to wait years to write about Knapp and why she never hits the “delete” key in a first draft. In 2001, just a few years into their friendship, Knapp was diagnosed with lung cancer, and died within months. “But the way she taught me was the hardest lesson of all: by going first.” “I thought Caroline was going to teach me about grief, because she’d lost both her parents,” says Caldwell. They became the kind of friends who live their lives side by side, speaking several times a day, walking their dogs and wandering the woods together near their joint hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts.Ĭaldwell was eight years older than Knapp, with two parents still living. Both writers, dog lovers, former drinkers, and natural loners, the two women formed an intense bond. In the mid-1990s, Gail Caldwell–staff writer and critic for The Boston Globe–met bestselling memoirist Caroline Knapp ( Drinking: A Love Story and Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs). I think when the heart seizes, the mind grabs on, for whatever purpose.” I did not have to work to find the things I needed to write about. Make your own Six-Word tee or choose among our favorites.

Our witty, wordy, fast, fun game for of all ages.Ī new six-worder each day-and spot to write your own. BOOKS Our bestselling Six-Word Memoir® books, graphic novels, and more.Available as a Grand Central graphic novel.Ī true story about having a baby Christen Clifford & David Heatley The illustrated diary of a single Jewish artist making her own way through life, work, and psychoanalysis.Ī fictionalized story set in 2011 on the future of citizen journalism, media, and the war on terror. True neighborhood tales by today's leading comics artists and writers. Now an expanded book from Pantheon.Īmerican Splendor creator Harvey Pekar has teamed with four terrific artists for his first ongoing webcomics series.

The true story about six different people who survive Hurricane Katrina. Through supreme willpower, a belief in himself, and a steely desire to alter his life’s path, Douglas began to reverse his savage transformation, to understand and deal with the psychological turmoil that tormented him for years, and to prepare for what would be a profoundly challenging but successful reentry into society at large. But by the age of thirty, he had become a drug addict, a thief, and after a DEA drug bust, a convicted drug dealer sentenced to five years in prison, with another five years added to his sentence while he was incarcerated. On the surface, Cameron Douglas had everything: descended from Hollywood royalty, he was born into a life of wealth, privilege, and comfort, growing up in mansions in California and Mallorca and a luxurious apartment in New York City. A moving, shocking, and inspiring story detailing Cameron Douglas’s struggle to regain his dignity, humanity, and place in society after many years of drug abuse and almost eight years in prison. A searing memoir about the rise, fall, and ultimate redemption of the scion of Hollywood royalty, son of Michael Douglas, grandson of Kirk Douglas.

A long way home a memoir