{"product_id":"9781250078186","title":"I Left It on the Mountain : A Memoir","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eI Left It on the Mountain\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Kevin Sessums\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn his fifty-third birthday, Kevin Sessums woke up in his L.A. hotel room wondering how he would get through his scheduled interview with Hugh Jackman. For years he had interviewed the bright lights—Madonna, Courtney Love, Jessica Lange, and all the other usual suspects—but Kevin knew that his rapidly unraveling life was as shallow as the hotel’s hip furniture and he was hanging on by his fingertips. In \u003ci\u003eI Left It on the Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e,\u003c\/i\u003e Sessums chronicles his early days in New York as an actor; his years working for Andy Warhol at \u003ci\u003eInterview\u003c\/i\u003e and Tina Brown, then Graydon Carter, at \u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e;\u003c\/i\u003e countless nights of anonymous sex; his HIV-positive diagnosis; and his descent into addiction. It’s also the chronicle of one man’s spiritual redemption, found while climbing to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostelo, and trudging across the cold, lonely winter beaches of Provincetown. Peopled with the famous, like Daniel Radcliffe and Diane Sawyer, as well as anonymous companions—corporeal and otherwise—whom he met while mountain climbing and hiking, \u003ci\u003eI Left It on the Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of one man’s fall and rebirth, the next moving chapter in Kevin Sessums’s extraordinary life that takes him from the high to the low and back again. For readers who loved \u003ci\u003eMississippi Sissy\u003c\/i\u003e and want to know what happened to that tenacious little boy with the baseball mitt, \u003ci\u003eI Left It on the Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e is the sometimes very dark but ultimately hopeful answer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A gentleman-pilgram's tale of quiet fortitude and strength on the long path to something akin to wisdom. Kevin Sessums matches each instance of self-debasement with a quiet and forgiving wonderment at how his skies got so dark. He finds the answers in small acts of private internal courage in his exile in Provincetown, where he meets himself unblinkingly but with great kindness.  The kindness Kevin has always showed others, he finally proffers to himself. A quietly stunning book as intimate as a story told over a winter's night in a quiet beach town, after everyone has gone home.\" —\u003ci\u003eJon Robin Baitz\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A gay \u003ci\u003eWild\u003c\/i\u003e with drugs and sex and spirituality that shocked even me.” —John Waters\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“In the absorbing follow-up to his bestselling memoir \u003ci\u003eMississippi Sissy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e,\u003c\/i\u003e Sessums carries readers through an extraordinary journey of destitution, hope, and forgiveness, from a childhood in rural Mississippi to New York City and beyond.”—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A smart, spiritually, and emotionally rich story, rife with failure, forgiveness, and the yearning for significance.” —\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Hopeful and moving . . . \u003ci\u003eI Left It on the Mountain \u003c\/i\u003eis a spiritual page-turner.”—\u003ci\u003eLambda Literary Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[A] powerful, visceral new memoir.”—\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“With the most acute eye, an ear for the telling phrase, and a brand of compassion seldom encountered in the world of celebrity journalism, Kevin Sessums takes us along on a rare journey—to the places few people besides the famous and those who follow them get to go through the pages of deeply engaging new book, I got to know Madonna and Jessica Lange, and a long list of others. The most likable among them, Kevin Sessums himself. In a world of tinsel, he reveals himself to be that rare thing: a journalist with a heart.” —Joyce Maynard, author of\u003ci\u003e Labor Day, The Usual Rules, The Good Daughters and others\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Kevin Sessums' \u003ci\u003eI Left It On The Mountain \u003c\/i\u003eis irresistible--in turn, scandalous, hysterical, poignant, and, finally, triumphant.” \u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eDavid Sheff, author of clean and beautiful boy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Kevin Sessums's brother once told him 'You might be a sissy but you're a damn tough determined one.' And he was right; only the toughest of sissies could have survived the life, alternately enviable and harrowing, that Sessums describes with an almost reckless bravery in \u003ci\u003eI Left It On The Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e. Because Sessums didn't leave everything up there. He found something, too, that he didn't know he was looking for - the ability to forgive himself, and the grace to describe what that lifelong process has been like. The result is this terrifying, dishy, beautiful, valuable book.” —Richard Kramer author of\u003ci\u003e These Things Happen a\u003c\/i\u003end writer\/producer\/director on\u003ci\u003e My So-Called Life\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003ethirtysomething\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The best writers make you feel that contradictory things are true. Kevin Sessums goes one further and makes you feel they're true \u003ci\u003ebecause\u003c\/i\u003e contradictory - he wouldn't be the excited, vivid, big-game celebrity hunter he is, did he not experience so keenly the sadness of the chase and the starry desolation of those he tracks. A book both strong and delicate, of the world and of the spirit in equal measure.” —Man Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Mighty Walzer, Kalooki Nights, The Finkler Question\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eJ: A Novel\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9781250078186\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Picador","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40628043907278,"sku":"9781250078186","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_497d2dbf-9ca7-4bca-b7fc-bbd0b9fa18b3.jpg?v=1638755348","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9781250078186","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}