Care Give or Take
The second novel by Rob Brownell
AVAILABLE NOW!
Care Give or Take
Clagett is dying, paralyzed by ALS. His wife Akimbo has reached her limit as his caregiver. Desperate for assistance, they stumble into the foreign world of care providers... where, in their case, the caregivers are literally from a foreign world.
"Caregiving is a profession closely related to abducting, so it meshes nicely with our skill-set. They both entail taking care of a hostage, but, get this, caregivers are paid by the hour." So explains the alien boss, as he pressures them to hire his caregiving service.
Caregivers upend their peaceful country life. Clagett struggles to rely on strangers who don't comprehend his needs. Akimbo resents their invasive presence: "It's just... it's really hard to feel grateful for something that makes you crazy... even though it's less crazy than the crazy you'd be without them."
Clagett and Akimbo join forces to outsmart the self-righteous aliens. Their comical yet heartfelt trials lay bare the outlandish complexities of providing care for a loved one.
A Pleasant Surprise:
The Story Behind Care Give or Take
Rob Brownell’s long-imagined dream of writing a novel transmogrified into a bucket-list priority after his ALS diagnosis in 2017. That dream became a reality in 2022, when he published Invention Is a Mother.
His first book was written entirely using voice recognition software. Its Kickstarter hit 400% of its funding goal, and the concurrent fundraising campaign with Team Gleason raised nearly $12k for assistive technology for people with ALS.
Much to his surprise, in 2023 Rob found himself alive (after 6 years with ALS) and working on a second book. This time, he was writing with eye tracking technology.
That project became Care Give or Take — a comical and heartfelt tale of the outlandish and otherworldly complexities of providing care for a loved one. In this novel, Rob takes us inside a rarely-seen world — the lives of both care recipients and their caregivers — with empathy and creativity.
And in this novel, the caregivers are literally from a foreign world. It wouldn’t be a Rob Brownell novel without a never-before-seen genre-bending premise.
Rob passed away in February 2025 after 8 years with ALS and 4 years with caregivers, but his work lives on. Care Give or Take is now available on all major bookselling platforms.
Reviews of Invention Is a Mother
“Full of boozy wormholes, sentient appliances, multiple Jesuses, and many other colorful sci-fi abstractions, this book will make you think, feel, and smile.”
—Dan Marshall, Author of Home Is Burning
“Rob Brownell extends the subterfuge of our current world of avatars and on-screen personas a few steps into the future, and it’s a wonderfully terrible place. ”
— Alison Jean Lester, Author of Glide
“A quirky cast, an unlikely hero…fans of oddball science fiction are going to love Invention Is a Mother.”
—Bill Burnett, Co-Author of Designing Your Life
“A sharp, wickedly funny look at science, fiction, life, death, pitch meetings, insane flights of fancy and technology that will either kill you or save you. I loved it.”
—Will Leitch, author of How Lucky
Meet Rob Brownell
Rob Brownell worked as a product designer for thirty-five years before turning to his life-long passion of writing following his ALS diagnosis. The absurd humor oozing out of his writing is distilled from 100% authentic encounters in the corporate realm and 8 years living with ALS.
He is the author of two novels. Invention Is a Mother, published 2022, was written entirely using voice recognition software. Care Give or Take, published 2025, was written using eye gaze technology.
Rob passed away in February 2025, 3 days prior to his 63rd birthday and the publish date of Care Give or Take.
Meet ALS
ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) is a progressive fatal neuromuscular disease popularized in the US by Lou Gehrig and Stephen Hawking. The rare condition is credited as MND (Motor Neuron Disease) in European productions.
ALS received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019 for its dramatic depictions of a horrible death in Cinema, Literature, and Tortured Imaginations. Recently overshadowed by breakout star COVID-19, ALS returns in Invention Is a Mother with a haunting and understated performance as MFD (Mysterious Fatal Disease)!
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