Life and How to Live It: Volume one: Begin the Begin

By Chaz Holesworth

In a city built on survival, one young boy learns the cost of staying alive-and what it takes to finally start living.

Philadelphia in the 1980s was no place for the soft-hearted. For Chaz Holesworth, childhood meant dodging gangs, addiction, and silence after slammed doors. His father's world ran on heroin, his mother's on holy fear.

Caught between two extremes, sin and salvation, Chaz learned early on how to disappear: keep your head down, don't ask questions, and pray someone notices you anyway.

But everything changed the day he discovered music. In R.E.M., Tori Amos, and Nirvana, he hears something no sermon ever offered: truth, raw and imperfect. As his home life spiraled and his faith fractured, those lyrics became lifelines, every note pulling him closer to the one thing he never had: his own identity.

What happens when the noise outside becomes louder than the voice inside?

Or when loyalty to broken people starts to break you too?

Unflinching and darkly funny, Life and How to Live It: Volume One is more than a coming-of-age memoir: It's a portrait of grit, grief, poverty, and the fragile beauty of hope born from chaos. Chaz Holesworth's story captures the pulse of Philadelphia's rough-edged streets and the soundtrack that kept him alive as he battled lost faith, family dysfunction, and his father's addiction.

For anyone who's ever grown up in the wreckage of someone else's choices, Chaz's story is proof that you can still build something beautiful from the debris.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DNKQJJFH
• ISBN13: 9798889257820
• Release Date: May 2024
• Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 0.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Begin the Begin

I have always enjoyed reading about the lives of other people and seeing how they were brought up, able to cope with difficulties and trauma they may have faced, and just seeing how I can relate to them. When I heard about Chaz Holesworth's Life and How to Live It, Vol. 1: Begin the Begin, I was instantly intrigued and wanted to see what I would discover inside. Chaz obviously went through a lot growing up and it was inspiring to see how he persevered and the fight to find stability. I admired how his love of music was able to help him find hope and comfort. I thought this book was a perfect example that blood does not define what family is, but family can come from those who are supportive and there to help navigate through the darkest of challenges that is thrown at you in life. I was truly inspired by Chaz's story. I am going to give Life and How to Live It, Vol. 1: Begin the Begin five stars. I believe those who enjoy reading memoirs and reading about the lives of others. I am looking forward to the next book from Chaz Holesworth called, Life and How to Live It, Vol. 2: Near Wild Heaven. I received a paperback copy of Chaz Holesworth's Life and How to Live It, Vol. 1: Begin the Begin from the publisher, but was not required to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.