This Changes Everything
A Surprisingly Funny Story About Race, Cancer, Faith, and Other Things We Don't Talk About
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4.5 • 8 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
*NATIONAL BESTSELLER*
A cancer diagnosis caused Tyler Merritt—beloved author of I Take My Coffee Black—to realize that there was no time for anger, unforgiveness, foolishness, or lost friendships. None of us have any time to waste.
When Tyler Merritt was diagnosed with cancer, everything he thought he knew about what mattered in life changed. Though he made it through a highly invasive surgery and thought he was in the clear, Tyler soon realized that the cancer had other plans. It wasn’t a question of if the tumor would come back for an encore, his doctors told him. It was a question of when. The clock was ticking.
This Changes Everything is a humorous and optimistic love letter to this beautiful life. As Tyler counts down the days until his next scan, he begins to understand that none of us have time for anger, for being unforgiving, for foolishness, for letting relationships drift, or for letting friendships to be lost. It’s a clear-eyed reckoning with the reality that our time on this earth is limited and a hopeful vision of how each of us can make the most of the time we have left.
Laced with Tyler’s trademark humor, love of pop culture, and arguably too many musical theater references, This Changes Everything is a story about how wrestling with the idea of death can birth a whole new outlook on life, how we live it, and the urgency that comes when you grasp that time is a precious commodity.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Comedian, actor, and author Tyler Merritt walks us through a life-threatening health crisis with humor and heart in this deeply personal memoir. Merritt was having trouble swallowing a biscuit when he first realized he might be in for bad news. It turned out he had a massive cancerous tumor, one resistant to chemotherapy and radiation. In This Changes Everything, Merritt shares the funny, scary, and unbelievable parts of his journey through treatment, complete with fascinating thoughts on food, family, Christianity, and dying before your time as a Black man in America. Merritt contemplates everything from U.S. history to urinary issues, and all of it gives him space for both silly humor and tearful introspection. However you’re making your way through life, this book will entertain and enlighten you.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Comedian Merritt (I Take My Coffee Black) recounts his four-year struggle with cancer in this witty, digressive, and often moving memoir. After he was diagnosed with lipiosarcoma, a rare cancer that originates in the body's fatty tissues, at age 44—and underwent emergency surgery to remove a 27-pound mass from his abdomen—Merritt learned that the cancer had not been fully eradicated and would need to be scanned every six months. As his life devolved into half-year "countdowns," Merritt was forced to shift out of "strong Black man mode" and grapple with his emotions and his faith. At the same time, the Black Lives Matter movement prompted him to consider his illness in light of what it means to be Black in America (noting that he and George Floyd were nearly the same height and weight, Merritt writes of his remorse that Floyd is gone "and I'm still here"). Though other musings can feel less tethered to the central narrative, Merritt draws out the humor and pathos of his illness with impressive self-awareness (within a week after surgery, he went from "having a heart-to-heart with God, promising that I would never take life for granted" to "ripping my care nurse a new one because she didn't get me a sippy cup of juice fast enough"). This entertains and inspires.
