Failure is what we fear most. And yet, we have all failed in some aspects of our lives. Now, author Joshua Gidding breaks the silence by giving an honest account of his own failures, or more specifically his own enduring sense of failure, from childhood until the present. Gidding chronicles his struggles not with any outside enemy - drugs, alcohol, illness - but with himself, from trying to fit in at his posh prep school, to dealing with his rejection from Harvard, to making peace with his position as a professor at a fourth-tier college, and betraying his beloved wife after she was diagnosed with cancer by having an internet affair with another woman. All the while, Gidding places the idea of failure in a larger philosophical context. The result is a witty, provocative, and utterly honest exploration of the personal landscape of failure. This book will change the way you look at your own life, and your own failures.

Author Biography

Joshua Gidding teaches writing and literature at Dowling College on Long Island, where he is currently an associate professor of English. He has previously published a novel entitled The Old Girl (Holt), as well as short fiction, nonfiction, criticism and reviews.