Life's That Way: A Memoir Hardcover - 2009

by Jim Beaver

A special book about the end of one lifeand the beginning of another.

Life's That Way is a modern-day Book of Job. In August2003, Jim Beaver, a character actor whom many knowfrom the popular HBO series Deadwood, and his wifeCecily learned what they thought was the worst news possible-their daughter Maddie was autistic. Then six weeks laterthe roof fell in-Cecily was diagnosed with stage-four lungcancer.

Jim immediately began writing a nightly e-mail as a way tokeep more than one hundred family and friends up to date aboutCecily's condition. Soon four thousand people a day, from allaround the world, were receiving them. Initially a catharticexercise for Jim, the prose turned into an unforgettable journeyfor his readers.

Cecily died four months after being diagnosed, but Jim continuedthe e-mails for a year after her diagnosis, revealing howhe and Maddie coped with Cecily's death and how they managedto move forward. Life's That Way is a compilation of thosenightly e-mails. Jim's experience is universal for anybody whohas lost a loved one. But Life's That Way is not solely about loss.It is an immediate, day-by-day account of living through a nightmarebut also of discovering the joy of a child, of being on thereceiving end of unthinkable kindness, and of learning to navigatelife anew. As Jim says, these are hard-won blessings. Butthen again, life's that way.