The End of the World Notwithstanding

Rife with misadventures, brushes with death, and moments of existential insight, The End of the World Notwithstanding is a hilarious yet reflective look at the emotional experiences that make everyday life excitingand the physical ones that remind us were lucky to be alive. Im traveling alone, renting a cabin at a normally tranquil spotthats called foreshadowingon the banks of the Big Laramie River at the edge of the Medicine Bow National Forest. So begins Janna L. Goodwins lighthearted collection of nail-biting stories, all true, and all of which fill the listener with wonder as in, I wonder how any of us survives? Encounters with wildfire, insects, house pets, weather, gravity, predators, bullies, and the most potent force of allfear itselfunfold in remote landscapes of the American West (and Midwest); on the neon-splashed sidewalks of Hollywood; at a Catskills summer camp for actors; in the lavish apartment of a famous senator; in a Hawaiian beach condo; on the side of a mountain above the Mediterranean Sea; and far beneath the streets of Paris. Goodwin looks for and ultimately finds meaning (if not security) in a clear-eyed acknowledgment of our shared, human conditionand in laughter.