Book Review: Fiction Ruined My Family

Let me just say it, I hate memoirs. I really truly do. I have read enough stories about how someone painted themselves green for a year and journaled about it, I have worked my way through stories about abusive families and drunken childhoods, I have found no interest in true tales of cooking one’s way through divorce. Overall, I am not the memoir type. It is for this reason that I have NO idea why I requested to read this book. When it arrived on my doorstep I took one look at it and thought “damn. another whiny memoir about a sucky childhood”. But let me say this: I WAS SO WRONG! Sure Jeanne Darst had an alcoholic mother, a distant father, and distraught siblings but her spin on her personal history is perfection. There is no whining, no complaining, and some actual levity. I haven’t laughed this much since “Are You There Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea” (and we all know how much I loved that book). My only complaint is that no one told me this was funny, so I was the most shocked when I started hysterically laughing on the subway. All I could do was lift up the book to my fellow passengers as a gesture of apology and endorsement.

Jeanne Darst is moved from her loving household with her parents, siblings, and grandmother in St. Louis, Missouri to the bustling city of New York. Everyone is unsure if this midwest family can make the transition to the city that never sleeps. Fotunately, or unfortunately, they fit right in. Darst’s father is a starving novelist who has never actually written a published book but has great ambitions and knows that his break is just around the corner. Darst’s mother is an alcoholic raised with an in-house horse trainer only to be shackled to four kids and a dreamer husband in her adulthood. To say that she is resentful is a grave understatement. Jeanne chronicles her father’s revolving door of jobs, her mother’s attempt at the workforce and the inevitable disintegration of their familial relationships. While the goal of most parents is to inspire their children to follow their dreams, Jeanne’s family history pushes her away from her ambitions of being a writer. In order to find herself, she must first follow in the footsteps of her parents and recover from their wrongdoings.

I know this sounds heavy...and it is. BUT it is also hilarious! Darst has a fantastic wit, an excellent handle on sarcasm, and an eye for the ridiculous. She clearly loves her family but she sees its flaws and isn’t afraid to reveal them to the world. Additionally, she is open about herself and her character flaws. In this way, she reminds me a great deal of Chelsea Handler who is able to poke fun at the one she loves but also at herself. However, unlike Handler, Darst is introspective and understands the reasoning behind her actions. I want to give this five stars, but I felt that it did lag towards the end and regress into some navel-gazing. Still, I think just about everyone would benefit from reading this book!

-DLP