Beautifully Absurd (Paperback)

Paul Mathews never wanted to be an average Joe, so when he became a 9-5 working man, a husband and a father, he rebelled. Living alone 20 years later, a massive stroke leaves him tethered to a ventilator and unable to communicate. Two weeks after his stroke, Paul awakens to a world of beeping machines, dutiful hospital staff and a television he cannot turn off. Severely debilitated and fearing the end, Paul's greatest wish is to see his son, Jacob, again, and somehow repair their fractured relationship. But the hospital doesn't even have Jacob's nor Paul's ex-wife, Sarah's, phone number, leaving Paul dependent upon his doctors to choose his course of care. With the costly advances in medical care, Paul can be kept alive for years, but he only wants to be kept alive long enough to see his son again. Isolated and in this tenuous state Paul is bombarded by the recollections of his life: his days of student protest, Vietnam, his hopeful marriage, his bitter divorce and the solitary existence he chose afterward. He urgently struggles to make sense of his life and find a peace that has eluded him up until now. The Baby Boomers are getting older and while their health care is a right, death is a fact. Paul's ride through the medical system will hopefully give this generation of Americans the impetus to discuss end of life care with their family and their doctor