Darin Strauss

Darin Strauss' new book is Half a Life, the story of how an accidental death in his teens changed his life forever.

From his Q & A at the Wall Street Journal:

Dave Eggers, whose McSweeney's imprint is publishing the book, has also written about personal tragedy. Did he give you any advice?

He said that you have to be sure you want to tell the story if you're going to do it, because some people are going to say mean things. I felt I should examine it. I realized that when I was 18 and going through this I would have loved to have something to read about this topic. I'm really wary of self-help books. But if I did it right, it's kind of like a self-helpful book.

So much of your struggle seemed to be about finding an appropriate way to respond to the accident in public.

It's a very performative thing, grief. As with so much in modern life, I think there's a whole performative layer to what we do because we feel like there's a private TV show viewing our lives. This is for the viewers at home—I'm going to cry now.

Did you avoid going back to Long Island?

I would...[read on]

Visit Darin Strauss's website.

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--Marshal Zeringue