Beer Money, Frances Stroh
Beer Money, Frances Stroh
2 Rating(s)
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Beer Money
A Memoir of Privilege and Loss

Author: Frances Stroh

Narrator: Erin Bennett

Unabridged: 6 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/03/2016

Synopsis

In the tradition of Rich Cohen’s Sweet and Low and Sean Wilsey’s Oh the Glory of it All, a memoir of a city, an industry, and a dynasty in decline, and the story of a young artist’s struggle to find her way out of the ruinsFrances Stroh’s earliest memories are ones of great privilege: shopping trips to London and New York, lunches served by black-tied waiters at the Regency Hotel, and a house filled with precious antiques, which she was forbidden to touch. Established in Detroit in 1850, by 1984 the Stroh Brewing Company had become the largest private beer fortune in America and a brand emblematic of the American dream itself; while Stroh was coming of age, the Stroh family fortune was estimated to be worth $700 million.But behind the beautiful façade lay a crumbling foundation. Detroit’s economy collapsed with the retreat of the automotive industry to the suburbs and abroad, and the Stroh family found their wealth and legacy disappearing. As their fortune dissolved in a little over a decade, the family was torn apart internally by divorce and one family member’s drug bust; disagreements over the management of the business; and disputes over the remaining money they possessed. Even as they turned against one another, looking for a scapegoat on whom to blame the unraveling of their family, they could not anticipate that even far greater tragedy lay in store.Stroh’s memoir is elegantly spare in structure and mercilessly clear-eyed in its self-appraisal—at once a universally relatable family drama and a great American story.

About Frances Stroh

Frances Stroh was born in Detroit and raised in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. She received her BA from Duke University and her MA from Chelsea College of Art in London as a Fulbright Scholar. She practiced as an installation artist, exhibiting in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and London before turning to writing. She lives in San Francisco.

About Erin Bennett

Erin Bennett is an Earphones Award–winning narrator and a stage actress who played Carlie Roberts in the BBC radio drama Torchwood: Submission. She can be heard on several video games. Regional theater appearances include the Intiman, Pasadena Playhouse, Arizona Theatre Company, A Noise Within, Laguna Playhouse, and the Getty Villa. She trained at Boston University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Laura on June 01, 2016

Story of a dysfunctional family who had the bad luck to be born into a family business that allowed them all to behave even more badly. Frances Stroh doesn't provide many insights into how the Stroh family fortune gave them permission to act out, drop out and screw up their lives. Were there any suc......more

Goodreads review by SundayAtDusk on May 06, 2016

This is a well-written and well-edited memoir about growing up with family money, and realizing one day, as an adult, that all the family money is gone. Money, though, is not the main topic of the book. Frances Stroh is an artist and much of the story is about her art and photography, the latter a l......more

Goodreads review by Steve on July 10, 2016

I live in the land of the entitled, and this gave me insight into the biggest issue they have: losing what they have. Those without think that having would take away their problems but having leads to fear. No free lunch. All that being said, there wasn't an intentionality to that insight from the au......more

Goodreads review by Keith on December 05, 2016

An interesting perspective of an American institution that failed--but hardly a revelation. Thirty-five percent of Fortune 500 companies are family enterprises, yet only about 13 percent survive to the third generation. It appears the Stroh's family business lasted far longer than most. The book's s......more

Goodreads review by Judy on June 08, 2017

Frances' story of family money and dysfunction is not uncommon, so it was not so surprising to read. However, her writing is strong and I think the book came together well. As others have said, it was an easy read. The review on Goodreads says that the photos in the book were hers, but most of them......more

Quotes

“Of course, the Strohs’ story is fascinating in itself. But what makes this memoir special is Frances Stroh’s clear, brave voice. Free of regret or judgment, she renders even her family’s darkest moments with grace and love. A page-turner in the very best sense.” Katie Crouch, New York Times bestselling author

“Beer Money is one of those memoirs you neither put down nor forget. I’ll remember Frances Stroh’s family—and the beautifully candid, honest and often unforgettable voice she uses to describe them—for a long time. I was very moved by this book.” George Hodgman, New York Times bestselling author

“Beer Money, the memoir of the fifth-generation family member, Frances Stroh…Stroh’s absorbing memoir suggests that most cocoons are permeable and that privilege is relative…an ambivalent understanding of a complicated birthright, and none of its drama feels like an airing of dirty laundry.” New York Times Book Review

“Stroh, of the Stroh brewing dynasty, captures the downfall of this empire with candor and power…Stroh effortlessly and elegantly weaves in her own stories of sitting next to Annie Lennox in a Hare Krishna retreat center, her days at boarding school, her drug use, and her deep love and ambivalent feelings for her father. Stroh’s compelling memoir vividly portrays the aching permanence of loss and the palpability of hope that accompanies starting over.” Publishers Weekly

“Frances Stroh’s memoir, Beer Money, chronicles the unraveling of the 150-year-old Stroh Brewing Company, her fourth-generation brewery family and, in the background, its home city of Detroit…With Beer Money, she is on her way to a fresh new writing career—perhaps a riches-to-rags-to-riches story in the making.” Shelf Awareness

“In Beer Money, Frances Stroh takes us on a fascinating—and often chilling—journey into the world of dark privilege. In prose that is both beautiful and unflinching, Stroh tells a riveting story about the fall of an American family, an American city, and possibly the American Dream itself.” Janis Cooke Newman, author of A Master Plan for Rescue

“Detroit’s decadeslong public death spiral mirrors the steady dissolution of one of the city’s most prominent clans: the Stroh family of brewers…The author’s family might have successfully burned through a massive fortune, but they squandered a lot more than that. A sorrowful, eye-opening examination of familial dysfunction.” Kirkus Reviews

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