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    Fiction Ruined My Family
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    Fiction Ruined My Family
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    Fiction Ruined My Family
    Audiobook6 hours

    Fiction Ruined My Family

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Unabridged, 8 hours

    Introducing a deeply funny, charismatic new voice: an entertaining memoir of a family haunted by its own mythsand its obsessive idolization of the literary life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 29, 2011
    ISBN9781101523629
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Fiction Ruined My Family

    3/5

    66 ratings19 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Jeanne Darst has lived a life built for the modern memoir. You’ve got the archetypal mix of dysfunctional parents, tight finances, alcoholism, and a variety of quirky locales for setting. You’d think this combo would give you a typical memoir – but it doesn’t. Perhaps it’s the added ingredient of literature-fueled insanity that pulls this one through. Maybe it’s Darst’s naked truths; these are definitely not glossed over to show her in a better light. Darst grew up the youngest of four daughters in a family that makes the Osbournes seem like Ozzie and Harriet. Her father came from an illustrious family of law and literature and her mother was raised to be the Belle of the debutante ball. Perhaps what drew her parents together was their proclivity for self-destruction; Darst’s mother picks alcohol as her weapon. Her father chooses the route of self-delusion. The Darst clan moves around the country on flitting whims from St. Louis, to Long Island, to Bronxville, and finally to New York City. Neither of the author’s parents seems to know what to do with their children and her older sisters have targeted her as the “idiote” of the family unit. As Darst grows up, she inherits her mother’s love of liquor and her father’s obsession with the written word. As she struggles with these demons, we witness every humiliation, every scorched dream. And although it’s tragic, it’s also hilarious. Some of Darst’s recollections go on a bit too long and the chapters seem to collide into one-another which is jarring to the reader. But those issues aside, this book was a laugh-inducing (and cringe-provoking) success.
    • 3/5
      I really wanted to like this one, and there are some chapters -- when the author and her sisters are cleaning out their mothers' house near the end -- that aing. But most of the time the author seemed to be trying too hard to make me laugh, and it eventually just exhausted me.
    • 4/5
      Jeanne's memoir takes us from childhood (the youngest child) to present (married with one child) in a creative flow of words that never seem long winded or dull. Her parents live in a world of their own, leaving Jeanne and her sisters to raise themselves. The extra emotional baggage Jeanne carries and works thru makes for an interesting read.
    • 2/5
      Darst's book is another in a long line of , "look at my crazy childhood/life/career choices" memoirs. Quite often I found her annoying, with her insistence that One Has to Suffer For Art. At 20, it's understandable. At 30, you're just avoiding growing up. In any case, I kept reading because Darst does make her crazy family interesting, the passages on her dad's Fitzgerald obsession in particular. I also liked her snarky POV, but sometimes the story was disjointed - she'd mention someone by first name only out of the blue, with no prior reference to who they were or how they related to the story. That said, if you want a truly riveting take on the memoir, check out "The Liars Club" or the one by Jeanette Walls that's escaping me right now. Oh and you might remember Darst from the This American Life episode, "Frenemies" where her sister marries a Muslim. Which? Doesn't even come up. Der hell?
    • 2/5
      This should be the kind of book I fall in love with – it has all of the key components I really love to read. I just never really got into it though. The author failed to hold my attention and I never felt any connection to the story.
    • 4/5
      Jeanne Darst has lived a life built for the modern memoir. You’ve got the archetypal mix of dysfunctional parents, tight finances, alcoholism, and a variety of quirky locales for setting. You’d think this combo would give you a typical memoir – but it doesn’t. Perhaps it’s the added ingredient of literature-fueled insanity that pulls this one through. Maybe it’s Darst’s naked truths; these are definitely not glossed over to show her in a better light. Darst grew up the youngest of four daughters in a family that makes the Osbournes seem like Ozzie and Harriet. Her father came from an illustrious family of law and literature and her mother was raised to be the Belle of the debutante ball. Perhaps what drew her parents together was their proclivity for self-destruction; Darst’s mother picks alcohol as her weapon. Her father chooses the route of self-delusion. The Darst clan moves around the country on flitting whims from St. Louis, to Long Island, to Bronxville, and finally to New York City. Neither of the author’s parents seems to know what to do with their children and her older sisters have targeted her as the “idiote” of the family unit. As Darst grows up, she inherits her mother’s love of liquor and her father’s obsession with the written word. As she struggles with these demons, we witness every humiliation, every scorched dream. And although it’s tragic, it’s also hilarious. Some of Darst’s recollections go on a bit too long and the chapters seem to collide into one-another which is jarring to the reader. But those issues aside, this book was a laugh-inducing (and cringe-provoking) success.
    • 3/5
      Ms Darst is a good writer - but there really wasn't anything in this book that hooked me. Her attempt to explain why she had to work nothing jobs and live on the edge of survival in order to write didn't quite convince me, especially since she kept tossing in the observation that she knew successful writers who weren't living this life. Up until she quits drinking, her life as she describes it is a messy mess and there wasn't anything that I found particularly funny. I think she would be a hard person to be around and she certainly took in at a basic level the lessons that her parents taught her about sacrificing people for one's own interests.
    • 3/5
      It’s best to not know too much about Fiction Ruined My Family before jumping in. The Darsts are an exquisitely dysfunctional family: dad, a failed writer; mom, a sometimes lovable lush; four daughters. “Normal” is never in the cards for them. Jeanne is the youngest. She is bawdy, profane and funny. Fiction Ruined My Family is not my normal cup of tea. But reading it was like rubber-necking at a train wreck. I couldn’t help myself.
    • 2/5
      Jeanne Darst can be very, very funny. Unfortunately, she can also be very, very unlikable. I enjoy memoirs, especially those about writing, family dynamics and quirky characters. This book was the literary equivalent of the Jerry Springer show. A lot of posturing for attention with little substance. Jeanne Darst's anger at her parents for making selfish life choices in the name of art is clear. She is unsparing in detailing her parent's mistakes and failures. However, she seems to find her own similar choices cute and amusing. I'll give this book two stars for the humor.
    • 3/5
      I have to agree with what some of the other reviewers have said about this book. When I requested the book on Early Reviewers, I was expecting something very witty and probably ultimately redemptive in some way - rather like what I get from the essays of David Sedaris (and I'm not surprised to see Darst's writing compared to Sedaris by many here). The difference is that although Sedaris pokes holes in all of his subjects, especially his family, he is willing to make himself his own biggest target. His essays reach a point of sheer madness that as a reader, you get beyond what probably were stressful, uncomfortable family events in his life and see how ridiculous it all is - and you laugh. It's a bit like how you can go through something crazy with your own family and, five years later, you suddenly see the humor. Sedaris has the rare ability to make you feel like you were part of it from the beginning. Darst lacks that skill. Her book has moments that start to reach that type of comic transcendence - and then she pulls back sharply, usually with a cutting remark or, even more simply, a lack of reflection. Mostly, she just seems to be very, very angry - a raw anger at her parents, her family and herself that doesn't appear to have healed at all with time. It's hard to see any real affection she has for her parents - especially her mother - and when she claims to have it, well, it's hard to believe. There are no levels to her emotions, at least as presented in the book. And so instead of the revelatory caustic wit of a Sedaris, you're left with the grim task of someone who sounds like she's telling stories just to embarrass her family (and, perhaps, to receive pity). That might not be the case, but it's how it comes across. What did she learn from her parents' mistakes? Anything? The big lesson seems to be that she has realized how much they made her a failure - and she hates them for it. That's not redemptive; that's just feeling sorry for yourself. That's not to say there aren't some funny moments in the course of the story - there certainly are. However, for every time I laughed, there were three other times where I simply felt terribly, terribly sorry for these people: Darst, her sister, her parents. I almost wish I could hear the story from, say, her dad's point of view, just to see how what it's like. I feel like I got just one side of things from Darst - a cathartic tale for the author, sure, but something that left me feeling terribly uncomfortable as a reader.
    • 4/5
      Fiction Ruined My Family is more than a memoir, to me. It's more than comedy or tragedy. I'm going to go so far as to say that Jeanne Darst is the female David Sedaris. Her story-telling is a bit different, true, but her voice is much the same. She's charming and likeable, yet blunt and vulgar at times. Which meant, of course, that I loved this book!As a writer who never seems to write, I could really appreciate Jeanne's loving, yet frusrated, description of her writer father. His love of good books and 'the story' behind everything is something I could relate to. In fact, his willingness to work for his dream, regardless of cost, was something I admired. Yet, nothing more than a few articles ever really materialized for the man. Then Darst shows the true story of how the starving artist lifestyle affects a family. The romance of a creative existence dwindles with each painful retelling of poverty and, at times, despair.Jeanne Darst's parents both grew up comfortably. Her mother grew up well-off, and expected a similar lifestyle as an adult. The fact that her father's writing career never flourished could not put a damper on her mother's desire to live the lavish lifestyle, to which she seemed entitled. When Darst's father decided it was time to uproot the family from St. Louis and move them to a 'farm' that in reality ended up being more like a commune where artists went to languish. Her father's intention was to write his big break-out novel. Then the family would move back to St. Louis and go back to the life they'd always known.Not only did they never return to St. Louis, but the lifestyle they once knew was never to return. When grandmother (Nonnie) died, Jeanne's mother inherited some money to keep hersel and the girls afloat, but also seemed to inherit a new personality. One that apparently drank more, cried more, and smiled less. Broke and unsuccessful at his attemp to write a novel, Jeanne's father took a job at CBS, but never really got his act together enough to write more.As Jeanne Darst takes us on her life's journey, she unabashedly shares her stories of partying, careless attempts at jobs, and increasingly, drinking like her mother.As Jeanne herself wrote, "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."Darst navigates her life, eventually figuring out how to be herself and be successful at the same time. The wild ride to get there is definitely worth a read.There were a few quirks that I found mildly distracting. Some sentences seemed to fragment in ways that weren't intuitive to me. In places, the wording seemed either forced or awkward. And sometimes there's a feel of 'stream-of-consciousness' that seems to come out of nowhere. None of those things take away from the overall goodness of the story, however.I recommend this book. It's worth a read and is good for a few laughs. Darst is funny and sympathetic and on her way up.
    • 2/5
      Like many of my fellow reviewers, I felt that what I pulled from the description and what my end impressions were two totally different perspectives. I wanted to to feel more for the people, but it was difficult due the writing style. Now, I enjoy memoirs, but I couldn't get more involved or connected with anything in this book. Perhaps my own personal life experiences caused such a discord, but I do look forward to reading more from this author and trying this book again in another few months to see if my perceptions change.
    • 2/5
      I hate to do this. I really do. Especially considering that by giving this book a rating, I feel as if I am rating the person, even though that is not what I am doing. I have to give this memoir a two star review.What attracted me to the memoir at first was the description. Who wouldn't enjoy a deeply witty book about drinking, demons, family dysfunction and the all encompassing writing bug? However, once I started to read the book, I saw that this book wasn't deeply witty, it was deeply sad.The first third and last third of the book were actually quite good. I found myself really understanding Darst and her family life, if only for a moment. The middle, unfortunately, left a very sour taste in my mouth. The Jeanne Darst we see in this portion is not, in my opinion, a person you can easily like. Granted, the middle of the memoir is when she is in her deepest throes of alcoholism, but some of the things she writes leaves me cold. While at times you can tell that the commentary is meant to be from "past Jeanne", sometimes the horrible things she says seem to come from "modern Jeanne", and it would make me incredibly disgusted. I mean, it is one thing for "past Jeanne" to act the part of the self-centered alcoholic when her therapist begins to cry at a session because she has Lyme disease and the hospital is giving her the run around about a procedure. It is completely another when a grown, sober woman infers that because of this that the therapist was broken and shouldn't be doing her job. It was heartless.Darst also didn't seem to have a filter for things that might have been better left unsaid. I know that she probably wanted to capture the full "truth" of certain instances and really convey how messed up her family was, but for God sakes, did she have to take all the dignity away from her father when she talked about seeing his genitals as he is writhing in a hospital bed?I will say that I think that Jeanne Darst is a very capable writer. In fact, there was one pun she made that stuck with me and will probably continue to stand out in the future. When she said that one of her college co-workers had a "latemotif" running throughout her life, I chuckled. As a writer and a musician, I really appreciated what she did with that phrase. It was quite clever! Darst has a great feel for language and THAT was what kept me reading. I wanted to see how she would phrase and describe things!My biggest issue is that Darst was mostly unlikeable in the heart of the memoir, which I am sure was due to being the self-centered alcoholic. However, when some of her lack of remorse for appalling situations seems to be coming from the modern Darst, it left me wondering if the jerky behavior was due to the alcohol or if it was just her. The reason I don't know if I buy that is because she does have so much clarity, understanding and kindness in the latter part of the book that I want to just chalk it up to poor editing or word choice. Perhaps it is something she may want to revisit in the future if that is not the way she wanted to be portrayed in her own writing.The writing and the book are actually quite good, and if you are into authors like David Sedaris, then this might be right up your alley (I'm not a Sedaris fan, so that could be why this type of humor doesn't resonate with me). For me, it just wasn't the deeply witty book it was touted to be. I was more saddened and horrified by her life than laughing. I am glad that she is in a much better place with her life and wish her the best because after all she has been through, she DOES deserve to find that happiness and for those pieces to fall into place! What she struggled through and overcame is immeasurable, and for that I have to give her all the credit in the world. I think she is stronger than she thinks and more than she could ever imagine. You see glimmers of that person, and THAT is the Jeanne Darst that I find to be lovable and amazing. That is the Darst that I enjoyed reading about. It's just unfortunate that that side of her is the one least seen in her memoir.
    • 3/5
      I mostly enjoyed this book - but felt that the last 1/3 was like reading a different book.I really liked the author's conversational style of writing. Reading along really felt like (especially for the first 2/3s of the book) just listening to a funny friend tell the story of her life. There was a lot here that could have been really cringe worthy. I have a love/hate relationship with memoirs. I love reading stories about people's lives - but I have a hard time not worrying about the effect of publicly telling unflattering stories about family members. The author seems to handle this all really well especially in the beginning of the book. Her early life was crazy - thanks in no small part to her parents - but somehow she doesn't see like she is condemning them for their actions (or inactions) rather - she is able to keep it light and funny.Later in the book - when revealing and then describing her own spiral down into alcoholism then subsequent recovery - I feel like the book lost a lot of its charm and got bogged down in a lot of self analysis and even the light she portrayed the rest of her family in starts to shift and felt a lot more critical and really brought the book down.There are some really wonderful, memorable parts to this book. I wish that it had been able to maintain its mood the whole way through - or perhaps maybe if that was impossible due to the events in the author's life - maybe it would have been a better editorial choice to end it sooner rather than to feel it necessary to bring it all the way up to present time.
    • 2/5
      I wanted to like this book, but the writing was dry and I didn't care for the characters. That sounds harsh because this is a memoir and the "characters" are real people. The writing just wasn't polished enough or compelling enough to keep me interested.
    • 3/5
      This memoir made me......sad.I went to school with these girls, one of them was in my class. It is funny, because looking back, I had Jeanne and her family pegged as the typical Bronxville NY family, well-to-do, without a care in the world. I had no idea what she and her siblings were dealing with. Just goes to show you that you may think someone else's life is all sunshine and rainbows....when in reality, it's not.I think Jeanne Darst is a brave soul for writing this memoir...it took a lot of courage. She seems to be very well-adjusted to have had such a "different" upbringing. And, she is pretty damn funny!
    • 4/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed Darst's memoir and her (now) clear-eyed observations of both her mother's alcoholism and her father's obsessive and compulsive quest for literary success (spending decades on "research" for a biography of F. Scott and Zelda Fitgerald). Finding herself in the grip of the demons that beset her parents, she honestly chronicles both the road to that realization and her efforts to change HER ending.
    • 4/5
      I really liked this book! A memoir by Jeanne Darst- one of four sisters, who grew up with their eccentric mother (five feet tall, with a fur coat and heels-drink in one hand, cigarette in the other) and her faux 'novelist' father- an extremely well read and intelligent man, who had ambition,but no follow through. Books, reading and writing figure prominently, as do money (the lack thereof) and alcohol. Though both parents come from money and social prominence, they have neither in their life together.I liked the author's descriptions, for instance, when describing her grandmothers lack of interest in reading, she says: 'I don't remember any books in her house at all. Seeing a copy of the Grapes Of Wrath in her living room would have been like spotting a dead falcon on her coffee table' On the other hand, her sister Liz's love of books was something quite different: 'She loved the book as object. I remember the shame I felt, more than once, when Liz caught me placing a book on it's spine or dog-earing it's pages: "Jeanne, you can't do that to books! Look what you did," and she would hold it up for me to consider it's plight. "You can't treat books this way!" she would say, as if you had just stubbed out your cigarette between Lassie's eyes.Jeanne is a wild one, a drinker (like her mom) and and an aspiring writer (like her Dad) and she takes to booze like a duck to water. Ironically, she cuts back on her drinking in college, because her fellow classmates aren't hard enough, are mere amateurs. When they ask her to party she thinks: With three four-packs of Bartles and James? I don't want to be stuck with a case of alcoholic blue-balls when you ladies run out of wine coolers and pass out and I can't get anything else to drink! No way!.There are lots of funny stories, the kind that are funny when you look back, perhaps not so much while you're living it. There is a Lauren Hutton story that had me rolling! I think the author comes across as witty, intelligent and extremely honest. Her parents, themselves much funnier in retrospect (her Mom loses her skirt- literally- while out shopping with one of her daughters- and is walking through NYC in a fancy shirt, jewelry, stockings and high heels for God knows how long. Another great story) There is also sadness, lots of underlying sadness, but overall it's about how our parents are who they are-like it or not- and how we have to deal with them AS IS, and also, how sometimes we posses some of the very traits that we can't stand in them, despite witnessing the aftermath of these negative behaviors. I liked her acceptance of that, and enjoyed watching her come to it. I even liked the cover art of this book. I feel like I went on a really cool, interesting and quirky trip with this author, and the book left me wishing I actually knew her! I will be keeping a look-out for anything she writes in the future!!
    • 3/5
      As a memoir about a family and its demons Jeanne Darst’s Fiction Ruined My Family falls short. How can this be a book about a family if the reader knows practically nothing about these sisters and their tragic parents? Darst barely touches on her parents' Southern origins and legacies. This makes it difficult to understand any of the sisters motivations. How can we understand where this family is going if we don’t know where they came from? Even the author’s own pregnancy is a marginal story in a book that devotes a chapter to the comical irony of having pubic lice during Christmas. Instead, it is about the author’s battle with alcoholism and living underneath her father’s mythical and fading literary shadow; about how children trying to ensure they do not become their parents end up doing so anyway. Darst explores the tendency for artists to seek dysfunction and destruction in order to create, mistakenly thinking true art can only be born from madness. These themes are explored in less than twenty stories; stories that were best the first time you heard them at that party one night in Brooklyn. Darst is a good storyteller even if she isn’t telling the best story.Further Reading: Smashed Koren Zailckas; Drinking: A Love Story Caroline Knapp. Wishful Drinking Carrie Fisher; Dry Augusten Burroughs