If the experiences Abigail Thomas (A Three Dog Life) writes about in her memoir What Comes Next and How to Like It were in a piece of fiction, readers might find it difficult to believe the story. Her bizarre series of events begins when she discovers her long-time friend Chuck is having an affair with her daughter, Catherine. To add to the strangeness, Thomas waits a month to tell her husband and, a week after that, he walks the dog, gets hit by a car, suffers traumatic brain injuries and never recovers. Not only does Thomas lose her spouse, but she no longer has her best friend Chuck to turn to in her grief, or any sense of connection to her daughter throughout that difficult period.
Time did eventually soothe the anger and betrayal she felt toward Chuck. These snippets of prose are full of love, humor, anger and a certain amount of uncertainty as Thomas ponders what life really is all about and what happens after one dies. Intertwined with these reflections on living and facing the unknown are commentaries on painting on glass using oil-based paints, Thomas's interactions with her dogs and the grief she felt when they died, and the range of emotions she felt when Catherine was diagnosed with a serious illness.
Although most of these passages are very short and read almost like journal entries, the overall picture Thomas conveys is that the deep, soul-level relationships make all the highs and lows of life bearable. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer