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| It's Only Temporary: The Good News and the Bad News of Being Alive | 
 enlarge | Author: Evan Handler
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $8.17
You Save: $16.78 (67%)
New (3) Used (3) from $8.16
Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 365540
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 0.8
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.196994190092
ASIN: B001H31NJG
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A provocative, funny, and whip- smart memoir of how one man learned to find joy in his own life after years of hand-to-hand combat with death.
Actor and author Evan Handlers new book, Its Only Temporary, is both a deeply personal memoir and a series of meditations on life, love, faith, gratitude, and mortality. In closely examining his own triumphs, mistakes, and less-than-ideal relationships since his miraculous recovery from a supposedly incurable leukemia more than twenty years ago, Handler zeroes in on the most profound question facing every human being: How can a person live well with the knowledge that time is limited? In doing so, Handler has created a poignant and wildly funny rumination on the ironies of human existence.
Structured as a collection of incisive and probing autobiographical stories , Its Only Temporary is a startlingly candid portrait of one mans struggle to find love and happiness within a life he knows hes lucky just to have. By turns hilarious and heart-wrenching, blunt and shocking, Handlers defiantly unconventional memoir ultimately succeeds as both a stirring love story and a classic coming-of-age tale. Its Only Temporary celebrates the transformation from boy to maneven if it took Handler more than forty years to get there.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 Read "Time on Fire" First.... June 22, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
....to gain an understanding of what Evan went through. I wrote an extensive review of his first book on Amazon in 1998, and received a lovely email from Mr. Handler thanking him for my kind words. The review was later deleted (not sure why) but I wrote another short one back in 2000 to make up for it. And here is why: it's a phenomenal story about what it is like to be young and on the cusp of success before it is snatched away from you. Make no mistake - this man should be dead. The survival rates for his type of leukemia in the 1980's were dismal at best. His navigation through treatment and all it's emotions is striking, and made this nurse think twice about how healthcare is delivered.
So what happens when you beat the odds and have to live? You press on. And so he has, and has gained success again in the process - although not nearly what he should have. It should be noted that Evan was on his way to a major acting career when he was young. Matthew Broderick and a host of other young 1980's actors have basically had better careers because he had to drop out of the business for treatment. He should have won his Tony by now...if not his Oscar.
So - the new book. Of course, it's not about his time on Sex and the City. That's only a small portion of what he's been doing since his recovery. So those looking for some insight into that character should read something else. It's about trying to gain self-identity as something other that a patient. Living a life you weren't expecting to have. It's anecdotal (most good writing is) and funny. The story of selling his engagement ring back to Sotheby's made me cry, because beating cancer doesn't preclude you from failed relationships.
As a new mom, I love that he has embraced fatherhood - he's lucky he could have kids after all his treatment. And it was nice to catch up with his progress after all these years. I loved it.
 Second volume of memoirs May 2, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Evan Handler's IT'S ONLY TEMPORARY picks up where is earlier memoir 'Time on Fire' left off. Where the first volume detailed his battle with lukemia this book tells of his attempts to restart his acting career and personal life once he was cured of the illness. He writes of being cast in the Broadway production of 'Six Degrees of Seperation'and of his abortive attempts to commit to one woman. He writes of his attempt to volunteer at the hospital where he once underwent treatment and how the hospital,recalling what he'd written about them in the earlier book, refused his offer. The book ends with the story of how he met his wife. (At a bookstore appearence he read one of the better chapters; the meeting of his in-laws and the cultural differences between his Northern Italian wife and family and Americans.) These chapters are so good that the book concludes on a wonderful note.
Truly remarkable book. June 15, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I read Evan Handler's new book the week it came out (MySpace was abuzz with it's empending release for a while). It was wonderful. I was expecting a self important, "this is me after cancer, pity me!" type of book, but was pleasently surprised. It is full of humorously self depricating, truly hysterical essays that draw you in to the book. They are not presented in a "first this happened and then this happened" progression. Like the author explains in the intro, he wants it to be like getting to know someone, you find out things about them randomly and out of order. My favorite moment in the book was, after describing some truly terrible behavior, Mr Handler reminds the reader that he had had cancer. Sounds odd? You have to read it to fully appreciate why I had to set the book down for a few moments to laugh myself silly. I also had my eyes opened to the fact that Americans have dirty butts. We do, and the authors wife knows this. I haven't been the same since! Mr Handler is a remarkable writer and this book shows off his talents beautifully. I was drawn into his mind and was pleased with what was presented to me there. Honest, raw emotions and dark humor. Each essay brings you further to what I see as his point: Life is not easy, even if you're supposed to appreciate it a little more than others. I firmly suggest anyone read this book. It is like talking to a really good friend you haven't seen in years. Catching up on all you've missed. Being entertained by his self expression. This book is worth the price and then some. Read it!! You'll thank me!
Honest. Refreshing. Heartening. May 9, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
IT'S ONLY TEMPORARY is a most engaging work. I was impressed by Evan Handler's candor - and charmed by his sense of humor. And I was especially captivated by the story of how he met and then fell passionately in love with his wife. It's a romantic tale - complete with a soaring finish! I found myself exhilarated reading about his discovery of this deeper love - how it transformed his life and what it taught him about past experiences with relationships and his own humanity. Handler writes with great wit and style. Somehow his observations manage to resonate deep insight and entertain at the same time. His approach to storytelling is intimate and universal - philosophical and practical....I believe this book has something important to say about love and being fully alive.
A fun, frustrating, ultimately rewarding journey May 27, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Evan Handler's second memoir is heavy, light, illuminating, infuriating, jaded and joyful. Finding his way in the world (again) after surviving an "incurable" cancer that hit him while he was an actor on the rise in his 20s, Handler muddles through relationships with a hard-boiled charm that won me over. It's a fantastic read.
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