Let Me Down Easy

About this book

Compiled from dozens of interviews conducted by the author Anna Deavere Smiths Let Me Down Easy is a bracing tender melancholy and triumphant exploration of death and dying. The speakers Smith inhabits include healthcare professionals theologians artists athletes and activists. They speak of the body as a battleground a tool a weapon a joy a burden. Smiths great gift has always been her ability to break down her subjects defenses and present them in their full complicated beauty. Whether channeling Lance Armstrong Lauren Hutton Peter Gomes or others who are not in the public eye Smith reminds us again and again that in learning to die we learn to live.