Standing at the Back Door of Happiness: And How I Unlocked It

Humorist Roche (The Church of 80% Sincerity) reflects on living with a disability and growing up in a large family in this tender memoir. Born with a vascular malformation that causes progressive deformation of his face and required painful, semi-regular surgery, Roche frames the narrative as “the story of [his] inner anger’s diminution,” and invites readers to “find and sample love as I have.” In short, punchy essays, he discusses how growing up as one of seven children helped him learn to live in a community, how his disappointing work with Canada’s Democratic Workers Party served as a prelude to his more fulfilling work in AIDS activism, and how the love of his wife, Marlena, made him feel that he had “finally joined the human race,” even though she was married when they first met. (“If this was sin then I loved sin,” Roche writes. “Sin had saved my soul.”) Humorous narrative detours, including a David Sedaris–esque chapter about Roche’s stint working for a sex toy manufacturer (“No bashful need apply,” read the job posting), effectively counterbalance the sincerity, while sections on Roche’s struggles with alcoholism add depth. This succinct memoir makes a big impression. (Oct.)