Fiction Ruined My Family
Book Summary
A deeply funny and bittersweet memoir of having grown up in an eccentric family of faded wealth and gentility 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 author Jeanne Darst with a highly unusual approach to life — and a wicked sense of humor.
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The connection between art and alcohol is legendary. In Jeanne Darst's bittersweet memoir, Fiction Ruined My Family, she writes about what happens when they become enmeshed with family life. Her story begins with her family moving from St. Louis to Amagansett, N.Y., to fulfill her father's writing ambitions. (Although he did complete a novel, he never sold it.) Meanwhile, Darst watches her mother's drinking get out of control. The greatest challenge Darst's
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