Like Crazy, Dan Mathews
Like Crazy, Dan Mathews
List: $18.99 | Sale: $13.29
Club: $9.49

Like Crazy
Life with My Mother and Her Invisible Friends

Author: Dan Mathews

Narrator: Dan Mathews

Unabridged: 5 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/11/2020


Synopsis

“Exquisite. Full of wry humor, tenderness, and compassion.” —Jeannette Walls, New York Times bestselling author

A hilarious and heartbreaking memoir about a mother and son’s outlandish odyssey of self-discovery, and the rag-tag community that rallied to help them when they needed it most.

Dan Mathews knew that his witty, bawdy seventy-eight year-old mother, Perry, was unable to maintain her fierce independence—so he flew her across the country to Virginia to live with him in an 1870 townhouse badly in need of repairs. But to Dan, a screwdriver is a cocktail not a tool, and he was soon overwhelmed with two fixer-uppers: the house and his mother.

Unbowed, Dan and Perry built a rollicking life together fueled by costume parties, road trips, and an unshakeable sense of humor as they faced down hurricanes, blizzards, and Perry’s steady decline. They got by with the help of an ever-expanding circle of sidekicks—Dan’s boyfriends (past and present), ex-cons, sailors, strippers, deaf hillbillies, evangelicals, and grumpy cats—while flipping the parent-child relationship on its head.

But it wasn’t until a kicking-and-screaming trip to the emergency room that Dan discovered the cause of his mother’s unpredictable, often caustic behavior: undiagnosed schizophrenia.

Irreverent and emotionally powerful, Like Crazy is a “journey to self-acceptance and ultimately finding love” (Alan Cumming) and shows the remarkable growth that takes place when a wild child settles down to care for the wild woman who raised him.

About Dan Mathews

Dan Mathews was born and raised in Orange County, California, by a single mother who encouraged her three boys to bring home stray animals. In high school, he was beaten up for being gay and credits those rough times with helping him develop the thick skin needed to be an animal activist. He spent two years in Italy working as a fashion model and bit-part actor before returning to the US to earn a degree in history from American University in Washington, DC. Shortly afterwards, he began working at PETA as a receptionist and within a year was organizing protests. As PETA’s Director of Campaigns, he helps increase awareness of the rights of animals through high-profile events. 


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jeffrey

This was such a sweet, heart-felt tribute to Dan Mathews' mother. She seemed wonderful, one of a kind. His relationship to Jack was also very moving to read, in the way that the two men just found each other, no drama, no games... just two adults falling in lo.ve. That's truly what this book is abou......more

Goodreads review by Connie

There have been a number of memoirs released lately, and it takes a lot to stand out from the crowd. Like Crazy is absolutely unequaled. It's wildly hilarious and extremely tender at the same time, stylistically fast and fun, and contains stories that will stick with the reader for a very long time.......more

Goodreads review by Brynna

Literally so sweet. I laughed and cried at this touching and poignant memoir about love, loss, and family. Highly recommend for a quick and fun read.......more


Quotes

"Author Dan Mathews narrates this entertaining memoir about caring for his elderly mother in a raggedy old Virgina house. His voice is full of quiet amusement as he describes his larger-than-life mom and the ups and downs of their spontaneous costume parties, vegan feasts, and home improvement mishaps. Mathews's narration is mostly fun and breezy, but his voice fills with emotion when he speaks about his mother's undiagnosed schizophrenia and their challenging visits to the hospital. . . . his lively, heartfelt performance adds a lot of depth to this lighthearted but ultimately moving audiobook about a complicated mother-son relationship."