Richard Paul Evans is an author, father, and husband. In Sharing Too Much, he unpacks memorable personal stories and life lessons experienced over half a century. This broad-ranging collection of entertaining, concisely short essays offers thought-provoking insights and sage advice.
Over seven sections, Evans is incredibly open in sharing details about his life. He was a "lonely little boy" and "a poor kid from a large family" who suffered "years of teasing and torment" because of Tourette's syndrome, which was only diagnosed when he was 41 years old. Because his mother endured serious depression that manifested into suicidal tendencies, the family was forced to move from Arcadia, California to a rather dilapidated, inherited house in Salt Lake City, Utah. This move only exacerbated Evan's feelings of displacement.
Evans mines the past and the
foundations that led him to become a writer. Several essays probe his immensely
popular first novel, The Christmas Box—how it was conceived via
real-life experiences, the ingenious back-door path it traveled to publication,
and how that novel paved the way for Evans’s extraordinary success. Other
sections offer inventive moral-themed remembrances and fables, stories that
delve into Evans’s enduring marriage, parenthood, the unexpected teachers of
life, and even otherworldly, spiritual experiences.
Evans (A Christmas Memory) is a remarkably relentless optimist whose moving,
hopeful--easy to absorb--essays will offer great appeal and inspiration to a
wide-range of readers.
Sharing Too Much: Musings from an Unlikely Life by Richard Paul Evans
Gallery Books, $22.99 hardcover, 978198177461, 272 pages
Publishing
Date: February 27, 2024
NOTE: This review is
a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (March 8, 2024), link HERE
