Take It Lying Down

"A stunning account."―Kirkus, starred review


“This profoundly literate memoir of courage stuns and moves, and in its ferocious honesty, delights.”―Mark Medoff, Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Children of a Lesser God


“A powerful look at what goes through the mind of someone whose life changes in the blink of an eye.”―Booklist


Take It Lying Down is “a movingly intricate weave―a detailed and poetic chronicle of healing against all odds, an intense love story, a narrative of a young man’s journey from Maine to New Mexico and adulthood, and a book of literary inspiration and wisdom . . . this is not a medical book, not a self-help book: it’s a literate, occasionally theatrical, surprisingly buoyant, always philosophical and compelling journey through one man’s life.”―From the Foreword by Len Jenkin


Jim Linnell is a writer, teacher, and director. He is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Theatre & Dance at the University of New Mexico and former Dean of the College of Fine Arts there. He is the author of Walking on Fire: The Shaping Force of Emotion in Writing Drama. His work has been performed in the U.S. and abroad in Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel. Linnell helped establish the MFA degree in Dramatic Writing at the University of New Mexico and an annual festival of new plays that now bears his name. He received his doctorate in directing from UC Berkeley. He and his wife live south of Albuquerque next to the Rio Grande; together they have three children and six grandchildren.