A Three Dog Life | 
 enlarge | Author: Abigail Thomas
Publisher: Harvest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
Buy New: $1.45
You Save: $11.55 (89%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  70 reviews
Sales Rank: 40173
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 12.1 x 8 x 0.8
ISBN: 0156033232
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780156033237
ASIN: 0156033232
Publication Date: September 15, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Book has been untouched and therefore is spotless, unbent, and longing to be read.
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Product Description
When Abigail Thomas’s husband, Rich, was hit by a car, his skull was shattered, his brain severely damaged. Subject to rages, terrors, and hallucinations—and with no memory of what he did the hour, the day, the year before—he was sent to live in a nursing facility that specializes in treating traumatic brain injuries. This tragedy is the ground on which Abigail had to build a new life. How she built that life is a story of great courage and change, of moving to a small country town, of a new family composed of three dogs, knitting, and friendship, of facing down guilt and discovering gratitude. It is also about her relationship with Rich, a man who lived in the eternal present, and the eerie poetry of his often uncanny perceptions. Hailed by Stephen King as "the best memoir I have ever read," this wise, plainspoken, beautiful book enacts the truth Abigail has discovered since the accident: You might not find meaning in disaster, but you might, with effort, make something useful of it.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 65 more reviews...
 Maybe first E-book I also buy as a real book - this is a keeper August 18, 2008
I read an excerpt of this book in O Magazine and was intrigued, so I ordered the free sample for my Kindle - was intrigued some more - and finally ended up buying the full Kindle edition. I'm almost done reading it, and I think this may be the first book I've read as a Kindle book that I also want to purchase in hard-copy form - just to HAVE. This is a keeper, a book I will remember long after putting it down. Where has Abagail Thomas been hiding and why is this my first introduction to her?!
This is a tough topic - the traumatic brain injury her husband sustains and the author's adjustment to life after that event - yet Thomas handles it without unnecessary self-pity or pathos. I've read books of a similar vein that are gut-wrenching to read, others that are so lofty and inspiring they depress me - how can I ever measure up to such perfect humanity as expressed in those books. Thomas's book is the perfect treatment of this very difficult chapter of her life. She is able to speak the very emotions and mixed feelings and mixed up thoughts that any one would experience in that situation - I find myself reading and thinking YES, this is exactly how I would feel, it's exactly how conflicted and guilty and torn I would feel.
I think I will be taking this book off my shelf many times over the years to re-read. Sitting down with this book feels like sitting down with the author for a long talk over coffee. A very difficult talk, granted, but it reads as one of those memorably discussions you had with a good friend at the end of a very difficult period.
I look forward to finding other Abagail Thomas books.
 Not a book about dogs....but I loved it August 18, 2008
A friend handed me this book while I was visiting her home...someone had given it to her. She wasn't interested because she thought it was about dogs. I did too. I would not have read it had I known that it's not a dog book. I'm so glad I didn't know its topic, because I would have missed out on a deeply emotional account of the author's experience of her husband's TBI. A very fast read. Poignant, courageous, thought provoking.
What Would You Do? August 16, 2008
Life is not perfect. Tragedy can strike at any minute. How do you handle it when it happens to you? Thomas faces her tragedy with grace and poise. After her husband is injured in a horrific accident, Thomas begins the seemingly unending cycle of hospitals, doctors, and emergency calls. Eventually, Thomas realizes that, while Rich's life may remain in a state of limbo, her life must go on. She manages to find a balance between the wife she continues to be, and the woman who must now find meaning in her life -- on her own terms. She finds comfort with friends, family, and above all else her dogs. This is truly a story of love, loss, and ultimately - healing.
I applaud Thomas for her ability to stand by her husband under such devastating circumstances. Her memoir is honest and thought provoking -- sharing her feelings of fear, self-reproach, and even happiness. Her love for Rich is evident in her writing. A Three Dog Life is a true love story and a joy to read.
Learning to Live with Change July 22, 2008
Change is something most people loathe, because that which is familiar is more comfortable. Author Abigail Thomas learns to live with change following an auto-pedestrian accident involving her husband Rich which has a tremendous impact on her life. Rich miraculously survives the accident, but his thinking is modified. He no longer retains the past or carries the future. His thoughts and life are only in the present tense. Thomas realizes she cannot care for him alone due to his permanent brain trauma and he becomes a resident of a care facility. This requires Thomas to move from their New York condo to a home close by the facility. Despite the pathos, the book is filled with incredible humor. Conversations with Rich are often laced with poetic foolishness bordering on E.S.P. Thomas' descriptions of her coping mechanisms are spot-on with respect to surviving as a weekend caretaker in the midst of loss. She takes a cue from the arctic nomads who say the coldest night is a "three-dog night," and titles the book "Three Dog Life" because naps and snuggles with her three dogs provide great solace and comfort.
An absolutely first rate memoir! July 13, 2008
I'm always looking for a new "dog book" of quality. Well, this wasn't exactly just a dog book. It is, however, one of the best memoirs I have read in some time. Some may be put off by the somewhat jumbled chronology of this book, but I think it works perfectly to project the fragmented state of mind of Thomas as she struggled for more than five years to cope with what her husband's tragic accident had done to their once-comfortable life. Thomas has the extremely rare talent of being able to make you nearly cry and then laugh out loud, sometimes on the same page. This is an extremely well-crafted and utterly human piece of writing. And, by the way, it's a good "dog book" too. - Tim Bazzett, author of Love, War & Polio (RatholeBooks.com), and current practitioner of A Two Dog Life
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