{"product_id":"and-you-will-call-it-fate-a-memoir-american-lives","title":"And You Will Call It Fate: A Memoir (American Lives)","description":"\u003cp\u003eA high school dropout fighting addiction lands in Chicago finance under a former NFL player's wing. Timothy J. Hillegonds asks what he owed the mentor who helped save him, and at what cost.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReadical Key Points\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eStarred review from Booklist; Distinguished Favorite, 2026 NYC Big Book Award, according to the publisher\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePart of the University of Nebraska Press American Lives series\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSubjects include addiction and recovery, masculinity, mentorship and power at work. Also addresses manipulation, control and a two-year lawsuit\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePaperback, 170 pages\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHillegonds recounts eight years working for Sean Dempsey, an NFL veteran who became an entrepreneur and gave a young father in active addiction a way into the financial world. In the author's account, the support came bound up with manipulation and control, and getting free took a two-year lawsuit. The book moves between workplace memoir and reflection on masculinity, gratitude and harm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is written for readers of recovery memoir and of books about men, work and power, and Hillegonds turns the same scrutiny on himself that he turns on his mentor. The question is not whether Dempsey helped him. It is what that help was worth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTimothy J. Hillegonds's earlier memoir is \u003cem\u003eThe Distance Between\u003c\/em\u003e (University of Nebraska Press, 2019), and his writing has been published in \u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Daily Beast\u003c\/em\u003e, the \u003cem\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/em\u003e and Salon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Brand New and Readical Ready.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eReadical™ is an independent bookstore and reading-products brand built around a simple idea: books matter most when what we learn leaves the page and enters our lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eApply the Page. Get Readical™.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48020949794965,"sku":"NEW-ING-1496246233","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0800\/5861\/3909\/files\/and-you-will-call-it-fate-9781496246233-front.jpg?v=1790747015","url":"https:\/\/readical.com\/products\/and-you-will-call-it-fate-a-memoir-american-lives","provider":"Readical","version":"1.0","type":"link"}