Jim McGarrah is the author of fifteen books. His poetry and his nonfiction have both won national literary awards. A Normal Life is a selected collection of essays spanning the last decade that have appeared in books, magazines, and on blogs. The essays run the gamut between intimate personal experiences and biting social commentary. A reader will find subjects to think about and stories full of both humor and angst. What does it mean to be human in the 21st century? How have we, as a society, both progressed and regressed at the same time in the last several decades? Is it time for us to consider a national consciousness raising. McGarrah surveys leitmotifs and themes that continue to appear in his work, loss, destruction and distraction, and pathways to hope that make sense of what doesn't seem to make sense? There is a constant struggle in his narratives between the mythical and the universal that readers will immediately recognize as personal to themselves.