The End Of The World As We Know It: Scenes From A Life

Product Descriptionit Was The 1950S, A Time Of Calm, A Time When All Things Were New And Everything Seemed Possible. A Few Years Before, A Noble War Had Been Won, And Now Life Had Returned To Normal. For One Little Boy, However, Life Had Become Anything But Normal. To All Appearances, He And His Family Lived An Almost Idyllic Life. The Father Was A Respected Professor, The Mother A Witty And Elegant Lady, Someone Everyone Loved. They Were Parents To Three Bright, Smiling Children: Two Boys And A Girl. They Lived On A Sunny Street In A Small College Town Nestled Neatly In A Leafy Valley. They Gave Parties, Hosted Picnics, Went To Churchjust Like Their Neighbors. To All Appearances, Their Life Seemed Ideal. But It Was, In Fact,All Appearances. Lineage, Tradition, Making The Right Impressionthese Were Matters Of Great Importance, Especially To The Mother. But Behind The Facade This Family Had Created Lurked Secrets So Dark, So Painful For This One Little Boy, That His Life Would Never Be The Same. It Is Through The Eyes Of That Boya Grown Man Now, Revisiting That Timethat We See This Seemingly Serene World And Watch As It Slowly Comes Completely And Irrevocably Undone. Beautifully Written, Often Humorous, Sometimes Sweet, Ultimately Shocking, This Is A SonS Story Of Looking Back With Both Love And Anger At The Parents Who Gave Him Life And Then Robbed Him Of It, Who Created His World And Then Destroyed It. As Author Lee Smith, Who Knew This World And This Family, Observed, Alcohol May Be The Real Villain In This PainPermeated, Exquisitely Written Memoir Of Childhoodbut It Is Also Filled With Absolutely DeadOn Social Commentary Of This Very Particular Time And Place. A Brave, Haunting, Riveting Book.ReviewA Moving, Unflinchingly Rendered Story Of How The Past Can Haunt A Life.Publishers Weekly[An] Unnerving, Elegantly Crafted Memoir. . . . Morbidly Funny.Entertainment WeeklyA Devastating Debut Memoir About A Southern Childhood. A Simple Summary Of The Storyline Of This Memoir Might Inspire An EyeRoll: Do We Really Need Another Tale About Someone Growing Up In A South Of DaysGoneBy, Surrounded By Eccentric Relatives And Neighbors, With A Little Alcoholism And Incest Thrown In For Good Measure? But Goolrick Takes That Tired Scenario And Makes It Magical. He Recounts A Virginia Childhood Worthy Of William Styron And Flannery OConnor. The Deformed Weirdos, A Staple Of Southern Grotesque, Are Here, Including Severely Retarded Aunt Dodo, Who One Day Asked Young Robert To Kiss Her Passionately. Here, Too, Are Cocktail Parties That Would Have Inspired Douglas Sirk: Goolrick Describes The Lavish Fetes His Parents Threw, The Lovely Chiffon Dresses His Mother Wore. But Something Was OffKilter, At Even The Grandest Parties. The Chiffon Dresses Always Wound Up With Cigarette Burns, And The Hectic Entertaining Was Artifice And Pretense, A Frantic Effort To Cover Up Alcoholism And Other, More Hideous, Family Secrets. The Author Interweaves Scenes From His Childhood With Scenes From His Adult Life: His MotherS Attempt To Get Dry, His Own Breakdown And Drinking Problem, His MotherS Death. One Of The Most Gripping And Emotionally Insightful Passages Is Of His FatherS Funeral, Where Goolrick Makes Clear How Hard It Is To Bury A Man You HavenT Forgiven. The Language Is Lush And Poetic While Never Becoming Purple. Goolrick Is Clearly A Victim Of His Parents Brutal Abuse, But He Has Broken Out Of The Categories Of Victim And Survivor To Become A Powerful TruthTeller.Kirkus Reviews, Starred ReviewA Gifted Writer[S]...Memorable Account Of His Terribly Flawed Family. ...Searing...It Stays With You.Usa TodayGoolrick Adeptly Uses A Slow, Teasing Way Of Revealing Himself To The Reader...Anecdotes Of Captivating Vitality....The End Of The World As We Know It Is Barbed And Canny, With A Sharp Eye For The Infliction Of Pain.The New York TimesIn This Brutally Painful Reme