July 22, 2013
In this brutal but eventually life-affirming memoir, Willis chronicles his career as a war correspondent for NBC News alongside his personal battles with depression, drugs, and disease. Willis received his first gig in television in the 1970s on a lark. He "pulled into the parking lot and walked inside" a small news station in Eureka; the general manager mistook him for a job applicant. In time he moved to larger markets such as Sacramento, Dallas, and Boston and gained recognition, winning a Columbia-DuPont Award, considered, "the broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize." Drawn to the thrill, he was always chasing the next exciting assignment. What viewers did not see, were the demons Willis fought behind the scenes. To deal with a back injury sustained while on vacation, he relied heavily on painkillers which led to "a pharmaceutical-induced nightmare." When the author discovers yoga, he undergoes physical and emotional transformations that benefit his lifeâand thankfully the craft of his book. This is not the story of one man's downward spiral but rather "how (he) ultimately clawed (his) way back into the world." In part a personal homage the practice of yoga, Willis's book is revealing and confessional.