They Tore Out My Heart and Stomped That Sucker Flat

I was given Gizzard's masterpiece AFTER I had bypass surgery and have shared it with 15 friends who have had heart surgery since mine. But, the timing is important. This is a book not-to-be-read BEFORE you go under the knife; it may cause you to change your mind! But read after the big event, it's hilarious and you must be careful that you don't laugh so hard you pull your staples out. I highly recommend it as a vital recuperative tool.

This is a great book for everyone or anybody who has a love one going to have open heart surgery,or has had. This book opened my eyes to alot of things my mom has went through and going through now after having valve replacement a third time.

Lewis Grizzard was, like his friend Weyman C. Wannamaker, a Great American. His writing celebrated his Southern Heritage and is full of stories about faithful dogs, good country music and women who looked so good they'd make a preacher break out in a sweat. He often accompanied his beloved Georgia Bulldog football team, and reporting from New Orleans at the 1980 Sugar Bowl he wrote that he had just experienced a turtle soup that was so good it "couldn't have been any better if you had known the turtle personally." He was to the written word what Jerry Clower was to the spoken, and I don't think it's a coincidence that when Lewis branched off into stand-up comedy in his later years that his style seemed most reminiscent of the Big Man from Mississippi. Lewis loved his momma, loved his country and loved his culture, and he wrote about the things he loved in a way that if you didn't love them too, at least you could understand why he did. This volume details some of his tribulations related to his eventually fatal coronary disease.He is missed.

Lewis will make you smile, laugh, cry, and everything in between as he weaves another magical story in only the way he can. You'll learn about his growing up to need open heart surgery and how he'll never be able to look at a plate of BBQ the same again!