Maggie Rowe - Easy Street: A Story of Redemption from Myself

Easy Street is a witty and charming memoir that reads like a buddy comedy. With thrilling and unflinching honesty, Maggie Rowe tackles the heavy stuff: mental illness, envy, and what the haves owe the have-nots. A laugh-out-loud book that makes you want to do better. I couldnt put it down.

Maria Semple

There is a magic in Maggie Rowe that is able to reveal the unsung beauty, art, grace, and humor of mental illness (along with the struggly, super shitty parts of mental illness). Read this book.

Sarah Silverman

Easy Street had me laughing out loud from the very first sentence. Maggie Rowes captivating storytelling is not only a reflection on her personal life experiences, it is an enlightening exploration of the human mind. Shockingly honest, brilliantly funny, and imbued with deep wisdom and a touch of Buddhist philosophy, Easy Street is a masterful memoir.

Annaka Harris, New York Timesbestselling author of Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind

Similar to Truman Capote, Maggie Rowe writes like the most fascinating person at a dinner party who captivates the table with a strange, twisty, funny tale about the human condition. Its incredibly difficult to describe losing your mind and Rowe does it masterfully and unflinchingly. Her tenderness and insight make you root for everyone, especially her. (Spoiler alert: kindness and love light the darkness.)

Nell Scovell, author of Just the Funny Parts: And a Few Hard Truths About Sneaking into the Hollywood Boys Club

A romp of profoundly funny self-revelation.

Bill Maher

Easy Street is like donning a VR helmet and finding yourself in the middle of this amazing, moving story in real time. Pride, guilt, kindness, anger and comedy happen in dizzying succession. Easy Street is not a cloying tale of virtue-signalling do-goodery. Rowe virtually waterboards herself to get at the uncomfortable truths beneath her acts of kindness, which are often hidden even from herself. Yet with every ruthless admission of masked resentment or malice, she exposes not just herself, but all of us; were all presenting a curated self; were all acting nice. But Maggie Rowe is one of the few people brave enough to go excavating so deeply. An amazing book.

Peter Baynham

Rowes memoir is both moving and hilarious. It teems with truly indelible comic scenesmany of which jackknife into poignant moments of crushingly honest self-revelation. Which are also funny. Its a story youll neither be able to stop reading nor easily forget. I love this book. I could blurb all day about it.

Mitchell Hurwitz, creator of Arrested Development

Rowe manages to make each phrase of Easy Street more dynamic and incisive than the next. Her unsparing display of what she considers her own weaknesses brings in and includes the reader like an intimate confidante.

Joey Soloway, creator of Transparent

An NPR Best Book of the Year

Everything about Sin Bravely is unexpected. Its a deeply personal examination of what can happen when you take religion to the extreme, but its also hilarious. Maggie Rowe tells her own story of checking into an evangelical psychiatric facility after years of worrying she isnt devout enough. Her fear of eternal damnation is real and at times uncomfortable to read about. But what I found so refreshing about this book was the way Rowe balanced serious religious reflection and humor without an ounce of snark or cynicism.

Natalie Friedman Winston, Morning Edition, NPRs Best Books

A highly intriguing, personal and bravely written memoir about the author confronting her childhood terrors of eternal damnation and faith.

HuffPost

Sin Bravely is an unflinching examination of the dangers of literalism in the religion department. And while you might be distracted by the sound of your own laughter, its a dead-serious message that wont soon be shaken off.

Chicago Tribune

Brimming with characters wacky and sincere.

Entertainment Weekly

A gripping exploration of the necessity of disobedience on the road to authenticity. A beautifully written, deeply funny memoir.

Joey Soloway

Rowe deftly juxtaposes dark humor with raw emotion without ever yanking the reader out of the story.

The Guardian

A powerful debut memoir that hits the unusual sweet spot of rigorous theology, candid sexuality, and laugh-out-loud humor. Who knew theological inquiry and obsessive questioning of ones eternal fate could be so damn funny?

Mishna Wolff, author of Im Down: A Memoir

Maggie Rowe suffered for our sins so we dont have to. There are many laugh-out-loud moments in Maggies deeply moving account of her spiritual wrestling match with a god she both feared and worshiped. A book with an original voice that should definitely be on your reading list.

Annabelle Gurwitch, author of Youre Leaving When?

Anxiety, guilt, and a debilitating fear of going to hell dont feel like theyd make for a great vacation read, but Sin Bravely, Maggie Rowes hilariousand ultimately heartwarmingstory of her time spent in an Evangelical Christian rehab, is... laugh-out-loud funny.

Goop

This book is so honest, so chock full of struggle and philosophical profundityand ultimately so heartbreakingly funnythat one is only left to conclude that if heaven is a place that wont let in the likes of Maggie Rowe, then why the hell would anyone even want to go there?

Mitch Hurwitz

A sharp, genuinely funny book about the dangers of literalism and fear of the afterlife. A must read for anyone on this side of eternity.

Bill Maher

Rowes fantastic book is a born-again version of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest... Not for the faint of heart, this is a cutting examination of Rowes spiritual evolution that plunges into the big questions with the fearlessness found in the most brilliant of comics.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Readers who have wrestled with self-doubt over the strength of their convictions will find a funny, frank companion in this frantically compelling memoir... Rowes book does not provide easy answers, but her capacity to eventually sin bravely signals a new beginning. This engaging and adventurous book is an excellent companion for fellow seekers.

Booklist

ALSO BY MAGGIE ROWE

Sin Bravely: A Memoir of Spiritual Disobedience

Maggie Rowe

Counterpoint

Berkeley, California

For Joanna and Handsome Jim

Behold the gates of mercy in arbitrary space, and none of us deserving the cruelty or the grace.

COME HEALING , LEONARD COHEN

I am not a nice person. I am going to admit that right here and now. I mean, I look nice, I behave nicely, I do nice things all the time, and the people who know me mostly think I am one of the nicest people they know. But Im not.

Oh, I do have a nice life, thats for sure, on my well-paved street, where famous Southern California sunshine filters down through sheltering sycamore and long-trunked palm trees, where jasmine and birds of paradise bloom all year round.