{"product_id":"hard-love-a-california-memoir-hardcover","title":"Hard Love: A California Memoir - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eRay Lopez\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003ePaula Gill Lopez\u003c\/b\u003e (Foreword by)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the author of Hard Knocks: Memoir of a Small Moment, Hard Love is the second of three memoirs and picks up where Hard Knocks leaves his readers. It describes the author's immaturity as a young Christian living with his wife in California and his continuing struggles with alcoholism. Like Paul's discussion of his dilemma as a Christian in Romans 7:15, \"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.\" It also follows Lopez's continuing struggle with depression and his wrestling between his conscience and his flesh, reminiscent of T. S. Elliot's lament in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, \"I should have been a pair of ragged claws \/ Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.\" The narrative describes the radical way in which God heals Lopez from alcoholism, which saves his marriage and leads to the beginning of successful academic and professional careers (employment as a federal probation officer, receiving a master's degree in English from UC Berkeley), the birth of a daughter in Berkeley, and the blessings received through becoming part of a local Baptist church. The memoir covers fourteen years living in California and ends with a flight back east to relocate in Connecticut.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eRay Lopez is an evangelist, writer, and poet. He also works as a mitigation specialist in federal death penalty cases after retiring in 2016 from a twenty-six-year career as a federal probation officer. Born in Brooklyn in 1959 and raised on Long Island during the 1960s and 1970s, he journeyed through racism, Catholicism, the counterculture, alcoholism, drug addiction, hospitalization, and jail to find hope in Christ. He earned his master's degree from UC Berkeley in English in 1988 and has only recently returned to creative writing.\u003ci\u003e Hard Love \u003c\/i\u003eis his second memoir and his third memoir, \u003ci\u003eHard Faith\u003c\/i\u003e, will be coming out soon. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 94\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.25 x 8.5 x 5.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e April 15, 2021\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67868718760094,"sku":"9781725279933","price":36.16,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7748\/8030\/files\/MPOfupwg7c9781725279933.webp?v=1793311149","url":"https:\/\/theword.com\/products\/hard-love-a-california-memoir-hardcover","provider":"TheWord.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}