All Happy Families, Jeanne McCulloch
All Happy Families, Jeanne McCulloch
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All Happy Families
A Memoir

Author: Jeanne McCulloch

Narrator: Gabra Zackman

Unabridged: 6 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 08/14/2018


Synopsis

The Glass Castle meets The Nest in this stunning debut, an intimate family memoir that gracefully brings us behind the dappled beachfront vista of privilege, to reveal the inner lives of two wonderfully colorful, unforgettable families.On a mid-August weekend, two families assemble for a wedding at a rambling family mansion on the beach in East Hampton, in the last days of the area’s quietly refined country splendor, before traffic jams and high-end boutiques morphed the peaceful enclave into the ""Hamptons."" The weather is perfect, the tent is in place on the lawn.But as the festivities are readied, the father of the bride, and ""pater familias"" of the beachfront manse, suffers a massive stroke from alcohol withdrawal, and lies in a coma in the hospital in the next town. So begins Jeanne McCulloch’s vivid memoir of her wedding weekend in 1983 and its after effects on her family, and the family of the groom. In a society defined by appearance and protocol, the wedding goes on at the insistence of McCulloch’s theatrical mother. Instead of a planned honeymoon, wedding presents are stashed in the attic, arrangements are made for a funeral, and a team of lawyers arrive armed with papers for McCulloch and her siblings to sign.As McCulloch reveals, the repercussions from that weekend will ripple throughout her own family, and that of her in-law’s lives as they grapple with questions of loyalty, tradition, marital honor, hope, and loss. Five years later, her own brief marriage ended, she returns to East Hampton with her mother to divide the wedding presents that were never opened.Impressionistic and lyrical, at turns both witty and poignant, All Happy Families is McCulloch’s clear-eyed account of her struggle to hear her own voice amid the noise of social mores and family dysfunction, in a world where all that glitters on the surface is not gold, and each unhappy family is ultimately unhappy in its own unique way.

About Jeanne McCulloch

Jeanne McCulloch is a former managing editor of the Paris Review, a former senior editor of Tin House magazine, and the founding editorial director of Tin House Books. She is a founding director of the To- dos Santos Writers Workshop. Her writing has appeared in the Paris Review; Tin House; the New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine; Vogue; Allure; and the North American Review, among other publications. She lives with her family in New York.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Robbie Z on September 08, 2018

I picked this up at the library and thought the introduction was intriguing. I had not read any reviews and was not familiar author, Jeanne McCulloch, upon whose life this book was based. I started to put the book down several times, but kept trudging along. I found the book extremely depressing and......more

Goodreads review by Crystal on September 08, 2019

"The Glass Castle meets The Nest", this description to draw people into reading this memoir is not accurate. The only comparable correlation to The Glass Castle is alcoholism. As a child of alcoholics, I understand that alcoholism causes trauma, but the trauma described in All Happy Families is in n......more

Goodreads review by Michelle on October 30, 2018

"The Glass Castle meets The Nest"? Yes, please! This memoir is centered on the author's wedding at the family enclave in the Hamptons (early 80s) and the drama that unfolds when her father has a stroke from alcohol withdrawal. Of course, it's not really what happened at the wedding, but about everyt......more

Goodreads review by Juliette on May 17, 2020

During the time of global pandemic, this memoir felt more like escapist fiction. The author is from a very wealthy family (childhood Park Avenue apartment, a summer home called Children at Play next to Grey Gardens (!) in East Hampton, parents who didn't have jobs, a constant team of household staff......more

Goodreads review by Rose on September 05, 2018

This book was billed as The Glass Castle meets The Nest. It was not even close! Yes, it is about a wealthy family (The Nest), but it doesn't come close to the dysfunctional family and the ability to rise above one's upbringing so beautifully depicted in The Glass Castle. The only comparison is that......more