UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Former Parade editor in chief Kravitz makes amends and spends a year living connectedly.

Reflecting on his life after losing his job, the author was not pleased with what he found—a workaholic living in self-exile not just from his family but his greater life. He felt diminished because of his firing, and he felt guilty about the important things he dropped by the wayside: family and friends, a broad curiosity, an inclusive worldview. “As good as my life looked on paper,” he writes, “it was sorely lacking in the one area that puts flesh on meaning: human connectedness.” So the author devoted an entire year to tying up loose emotional ends. Despite being fearful and anxious, he reached out to reconnect with family, friends and acquaintances—a schizophrenic aunt, a high-school teacher, friends he has been concerned about, an old nemesis, people along the way he has made promises to that have gone begging—and found many pleasing nuggets of gold. Though genuine, Kravitz’s writing has a high pitch—not desperate, but somewhere between hopeful and eager to please. On the surface, his journeys are not particularly exciting; there are no swooning epiphanies, and the results don’t fit comfortably into a paint-by-numbers philosophy. Nonetheless, they are truthful, generous and worthwhile. Through his experiences, he found meaning, an acceptance of life’s absurdity and the insight that so much comes down to attitude and keeping the many threads of life thrumming.

Vignettes of a life recovered, not deep but authentic.