Fiction ruined my family
The family uproots and moves from St. Louis to New York. Jeanne's father writes one novel, and then another, which don't find publishers. This, combined with her mother's burgeoning alcoholism -- nightly booze- fueled weepathons reminiscing about her fancy childhood -- lead to financial disaster and divorce. And as Jeanne becomes an adult, she is horrified to discover that she is not only a drinker like her mother, but a writer like her father.
At first, and for years, she embraces both - living in an apartment with no bathroom, stealing food from her babysitting gigs, and raising rent money by riding the subway topless, or performing her one woman show in her living room. Until gradually, she realizes that this life has not been thrust on her in some handing-down-of-the-writing-mantle-way. She has chosen it; and until she can stop putting drinking and writing ahead of everything else, it's a questionable choice. She writes, "For a long time I was worried about becoming my father. Then I was worried about becoming my mother. Now I was worried about becoming myself."
Ultimately, Jeanne sets out to discover if a person can have the writing without the ruin, if it's possible to be both sober and creative, ambitious and happy, a professional author and a parent.
Filled with brilliantly flawed, idiosyncratic characters and punctuated by Darst's irreverent eye for absurdity, Fiction Ruined My Family is a lovingly told, wickedly funny portrait of an unconventional life.
9781101547847
Grouping Information
Grouped Work ID | 4a913db9-fe19-299f-a322-b1241f5e2dda |
---|---|
Grouping Title | fiction ruined my family |
Grouping Author | darst jeanne |
Grouping Category | book |
Last Grouping Update | 2019-12-14 23:00:10PM |
Last Indexed | 2019-12-14 23:57:12PM |
Solr Details
accelerated_reader_interest_level | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
accelerated_reader_point_value | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
accelerated_reader_reading_level | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
author | Darst, Jeanne. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
author_display | Darst, Jeanne | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
available_at_catalog |
Main Kids Main Library |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
collection_catalog | Biography | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
detailed_location_catalog | Main Library - Adult Biography | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
display_description | "A deeply funny and bittersweet memoir of having grown up in an eccentric family of faded wealth and gentility (think shades of Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums) in which the father's failed dreams of being a writer put the family in the poor-house, drove the mother to weepy alcoholism, and provided Jeanne with a highly unusual approach to life--and a wicked sense of humor"--Provided by publisher. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
format_catalog |
Book eBook |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
format_category_catalog |
Books eBook |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
id | 4a913db9-fe19-299f-a322-b1241f5e2dda | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
isbn |
9781101547847 9781594488146 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
item_details
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
itype_catalog |
Book |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
last_indexed | 2019-12-15T05:57:12.383Z | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
lexile_score | -1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
literary_form | Non Fiction | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
literary_form_full | Non Fiction | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
local_callnumber_catalog | B D225f | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
owning_library_catalog | Nashville Public Library | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
owning_location_catalog |
Main Kids Main Library |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
primary_isbn | 9781594488146 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
publishDate | 2011 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
record_details
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
recordtype | grouped_work | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
scoping_details_catalog
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
subject_facet |
Darst, Jeanne -- Childhood and youth Darst, Jeanne -- Homes and haunts Novelists, American -- 21st century -- Biography |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
title_display | Fiction ruined my family | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
title_full |
Fiction Ruined My Family Fiction ruined my family / Jeanne Darst |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
title_short | Fiction ruined my family | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
title_sub | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
topic_facet |
Biography & Autobiography Childhood and youth Darst, Jeanne Homes and haunts Nonfiction Novelists, American |