Never Stop Dancing: A Memoir

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Pub Date 10 Oct 2019 | Archive Date 15 Feb 2020

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Description

A story of grief, male friendship, and healing conversations.

“Be present,” “cherish each day,” “always say I love you.” John Robinette lived those words. Or so he thought. Then his wife, Amy, was killed instantly in a pedestrian accident.

John’s world shattered, and he began the grueling task of parenting two young boys in a house filled with vibrant, bittersweet memories. As the grief closed in around him, John’s close friend, author Robert Jacoby, saw John struggling and proposed an unusual idea: to interview him over the course of the first year after Amy’s death. Robert’s hope was to meet John directly in his experience of sorrow, explore his grief with him, and discover what lessons might be learned.

Born of a year’s worth of candid interviews, Never Stop Dancing avoids clichéd takeaways about grief and healing to chart a deeper, thornier examination of loss and regret. Robert and John are transformed through their shared experience, too, emerging strengthened and with an abiding male friendship that cuts against the grain of pop-culture trends of quick fixes and easy answers. This memoir-in-conversation provides hard-won reassurances that one can and does go on after loss.

A story of grief, male friendship, and healing conversations.

“Be present,” “cherish each day,” “always say I love you.” John Robinette lived those words. Or so he thought. Then his wife, Amy, was...


Advance Praise

“This book sings and will entrance, and inform you on many levels. Yes, it's a book about grief, but it is also a book about deep male friendships, communities, and much more. Its song reveals surprising connections between death and living, pain and Spirituality, and simply getting the most out of life. Extraordinary book.” — Tom Golden, LCSW, author of Swallowed by a Snake

"A container for mourning the loss of a beloved spouse, the memoir Never Stop Dancing by John Robinette and Robert Jacoby explores genuine friendship between two men as one supports the other on a wide-ranging journey from grief to transformation." — IndieReader (IR Approved, 4.7/5)

"It's a remarkable book. John and Robert's startling honesty and candor, holding nothing back, can't help but open our hearts and ease our own empty places." — B. Morrison, author

“This book sings and will entrance, and inform you on many levels. Yes, it's a book about grief, but it is also a book about deep male friendships, communities, and much more. Its song reveals...


Marketing Plan

National print and broadcast campaign
Regional media campaign
Online promotion with blogs and podcasts

Author contacts:
John Robinette
johnr@starpower.net

Robert Jacoby
rajacoby@gmail.com

Media contacts:
Lori Hill | Inner Harbor House, LLC | 301-502-1366 | innerharborhouse@gmail.com

National print and broadcast campaign
Regional media campaign
Online promotion with blogs and podcasts

Author contacts:
John Robinette
johnr@starpower.net

Robert Jacoby
rajacoby@gmail.com

Media contacts:
Lori...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9780578524450
PRICE $14.99 (USD)

Available on NetGalley

Send to Kindle (EPUB)

Average rating from 6 members


Featured Reviews

On April 29th 2010, John Robinette said goodbye to his wife Amy and went to work. Just a normal day. But John's life, and that of their two boys Adam and Bryan, was to be changed forever that day. Amy was crossing the road on her way to work when she was hit by a truck driver and killed instantly. John's friend Robert Jacoby sat down with John and conducted a series of interviews documenting the first year following Amy's death. This memoir, or rather, this 'testament to love and life' is the result of those interviews.

We travel with John through the four seasons and feel the immediate all-encompassing grief as he struggles merely to function in the first few days and weeks following Amy's sudden death. John has no choice but to put one foot in front of the other, as he has two young sons that he is now solely responsible for. He talks about the importance of community, and finding others who have experienced death themselves. He is brutally honest about the agony of grief, and the loneliness that surrounds him. The crisis of faith, and the signs that comfort. The self-medicating with alcohol. The well-meaning, but unhelpful words that are uttered because we live in a world that has no ritual or convention for dealing with death - 'it seems only recently that we've pushed the experience of death and grieving so far away from us that we've made it foreign'. He speaks about the 'firsts' that fill him with sorrow - first Mother's Day, first Christmas, first birthdays without her.

As the first anniversary approaches, their final interview is scheduled. John has been able to learn lessons from Amy's death. He is a better and more present father, he is able to open his heart again and find love. He is able to live with his grief which will always be part of him, but it no longer defines him

Robert's aim in writing the book was to show that 'in this life of pain and sorrow there is great joy and beauty, too. And there are gifts to be found in grief. I wanted to know what could be salvaged, what might be learned, and after, what new life might be found and enjoyed'. I wholeheartedly believe he accomplished this in Never Stop Dancing. A truly beautiful testament to the life of Amy and John.

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