Véhicule Press invites you to the launch of How to Move On: An Unfinished Memoir of Loss, Love, and Surviving Your Family by Joel Yanofsky. Come celebrate the literary legacy of one of Montreal's most beloved writers. The event will take place at the Atwater Auditorium, located on the second floor of the Atwater Library, and is free and open to all. Refreshments will be served.
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How to Move On: An Unfinished Memoir of Loss, Love, and Surviving Your Family is Joel Yanofsky’s final, deeply personal work—an unfinished yet profoundly moving meditation on grief, love, and the complexities of family. Known for his wit and insight, Yanofsky grapples with the loss of his beloved sisters and parents, all while navigating the joys and challenges of marriage, fatherhood, and a writing life.
This posthumously completed book, pieced together by close friends and literary collaborators Bryan Demchinsky and Elaine Kalman Naves, expands on the themes explored in Bad Animals, his acclaimed memoir about raising his autistic son. Here, Yanofsky turns inward, confronting the weight of cumulative loss while celebrating the enduring bonds of love. With self-deprecating humor and keen eye, he finds meaning in the rituals of mourning, the absurdities of everyday life, and the unspoken tensions within families.
At once tender and sharp, How to Move On is a poignant farewell from a writer who never shied away from difficult truths. It is a book about death, yes, but it is equally a book about life—its messiness, its unpredictability, and the people who make it worth living.
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Joel Yanofsky was a Montreal writer known for his sharp wit and keen insights into relationships and personal experience. His work spanned novels, essays, memoirs, and literary criticism. A prolific journalist, Yanofsky wrote for The Village Voice, The Globe and Mail, The Montreal Gazette, and more. He also taught journalism at Concordia University, mentoring future writers. He died in 2020, at the age of 65.
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