Friday, August 9, 2013

sad people being funny.

In The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison, thirty-nine year old Ben Benjamin was a husband, a father and a stay-at-home dad, before he lost everything. His children's lives were taken from him, him and his wife are currently estranged, and being that he stayed at home with his children rather than work a 9-5, he feels unqualified for any positions. Feeling lost, Ben decides to register for a twenty-eight-hour program called, "The Fundamentals of Caregiving" which as you can imagine, teaches the art of caregiving. His first assignment on the job is looking after Trevor, a nineteen-year-old with muscular dystrophy. They form a bond, as most men do, talking about sex and women, and the rest of the novel follows the two as they embark on a road trip in Ben's van to visit Trevor's estranged father. It's a truly nice story where the main character slowly realizes that by caring for others he can begin to find the strength to care for himself. A lesson we can all benefit from at some point. 


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