All Happy Families audiobook

"The Glass Castle meets The Nest", this description to draw people into reading this memoir is not accurate. The only comparable correlation to The Glass Castle is alcoholism. As a child of alcoholics, I understand that alcoholism causes trauma, but the trauma described in All Happy Families is in no way similar to the trauma in The Glass Castle. All that being said, I did enjoy All Happy Families.All Happy Families follows the events leading up to and after Jeanne McColloch's wedding. Jeanne was raised in the wealthy socialite society of New York City in the 1970's. They had a home in the Hampton's and traveled the world. Jeanne's mother was a snob and her father was an alcoholic. Appearances were everything. Jeanne's father falls into a coma right before her wedding when he quit drinking abruptly. The wedding goes forward without regard to the patriarch being in the hospital in the next town.The wedding causes ripples in Jeanne's family and her new husband's family.As someone who didn't come from a wealthy family, reading about the lives of those who did is fascinating. It's also a great reminder that dysfunction happens in every family despite appearances.

"The Glass Castle meets The Nest"? Yes, please! This memoir is centered on the author's wedding at the family enclave in the Hamptons (early 80s) and the drama that unfolds when her father has a stroke from alcohol withdrawal. Of course, it's not really what happened at the wedding, but about everything that happened before. I have a weird penchant for messed up rich people memoirs so this was right up my alley (they have enough money that the dad just spends his days translating stuff). Just a very compelling peak into these peoples' lives. The father, for all his faults, is a devastating figure, more so by the end. Well-written. I wish the author had narrated this.

"Even as an adult, the child of an alcoholic forgets how to speak; or, more accurately, loses the belief that their words have any power to make a difference or to matter.""What in the protocol of love takes romance to this prcipice, where decisions about death are made with an eye toward eternal union.""That's what every marriage out to be, at any rate, the perfect marriage everyone aspires to. A long and intricate dance between present and past, moving always together in step toward the future."It's a bit hard to describe this book. I adored it, and although Jeanne Mccolloch's life was in no way similar to mine, a lot of her experiences shined through and hit me close to home. I grew up with an alcoholic father, and the way she describes what they are like to live with was so poignant that I had to set the book down. The way she describes marriage, both happy marriages and the marriages that completely fell apart surrounding the occasion of her wedding was also incredible.The general mood of the book is melancholic. Towards the end there is the general air of true sadness and mourning, but all in all it's a memoir about slow loss. Of something you've build for ages slowly falling apart. It was truly an incredible book, one that I recommend to anyone. The fact that it doesn't go in narrative order or follow one distinct line makes perfect sense for the story she is trying to tell. By the time I finished, I ached for her.Definitely a book that's worth a read!

Good story of families and their love for each other despite their oddities/dysfunctionality. The protagonists mother was annoying AF as a person, but I still enjoyed the read and am thankful she's not MY mom.

—The review below was authored by Paperback Paris Contributor, Leah Rodriguez. Read more.Jeanne McCulloch's poignant debut memoir, All Happy Families, examines the precarious nature of familial life and love in the wake of her father's fatal stroke on the eve of her 1983 wedding. The family's excitement suddenly shifts into a haze of shock and numbness, but there is never any question about the wedding continuing as planned. Jeanne's imperious mother, Pat, has only one instruction for the hospital on the morning of August 13: "If anything happens to my husband this evening, do not call this house. We cannot be disturbed...We are having a party."McCulloch hones in on dialogue like this and connects it to past and future moments throughout the narrative, deftly exploring the incidents that stem from that day in August. She chronicles the ripple effect of her father's death without judgment, moving from her childhood on Park Avenue and her father's descent into alcoholism to the courtship between her and her husband, Dean, and the tentative position she holds within his family.If McCulloch's memoir could be defined by any one line or moment, it would come from something her mother says during a hurricane season while the family is living in their Hamptons vacation home — a place that exists as its own character in the narrative. She says: "We live on such a perilous dune. All of this could just go, like that."Not only does Pat's simple observation pinpoint the all-encompassing fact of our transience as human beings, but also the small ways in which love and the halcyon days of youth morph over time.  McCulloch points to the happy moments of her childhood when her father, John — an immensely wealthy hyperpolyglot — would take his daughters on trips all over the world, a chance for him to practice one of his many languages; or days after school when she and her sisters would style his hair into outrageous designs while watching sitcoms that would make him snort with laughter.Looking back, though, McCulloch recognizes that her father was at the beginning of a steady decline as his dependence on alcohol worsens. Even the childhood stories John made up for his children featured an octopus named Franklin who frequents a bar and orders drinks for all eight tentacles. Nevertheless, the lucidity and precision with which the author recollects her past and deconstructs the multiple perspectives that layer each remembered encounter successfully avoids the hyper-sentimentality that often accompanies similar stories.Yet it isn't entirely clinical, either. There are moments when I wonder what she's thinking or how she manages to keep herself together or she's communicating with her husband during certain scenes since she positions herself as an observer in almost all situations, but she never dips into self-indulgence — everything pieces into the atmospheric and thematic prose that she's weaved together. Best of all, the text never lacks for humor and grace in the midst of bad circumstance.With spare and economical writing, she elucidates the ways in which the "perilous dune" crumbles. Whether we want it to or not. The point — which she gets at without making too much of a fuss--is that people go on anyway. Because that's what life is.

3.5 stars. A mellow memoir chronicling family bonds, eccentricities, affluence, and complicated relationships. At some points in this memoir, I was wondering how Mcculloch was going to sustain a whole book with the low key story that she was telling...and then bam, something else major would happen. It was an effective way to develop her story and really highlight how surprising some life events can be. (deliberately vague here to avoid spoilers) I liked it.

Enjoyable memoir about family dynamics. I come from a blended and somewhat dysfunctional family so I always like to read other people's family dirt. Makes me feel better about my family. Hey, this family is a hot mess too! We aren't that weird.

I loved her whimsey; felt the undercurrent of whimsied lacework if that makes sense; i didn't see her as a poor little rich girl, i found the memoir, appealing, quiet, realistic, and whimsical.

I won this book off Goodreads. Highly recommend. A must read.

Great memoir depicting an interesting and emotional family dynamic that has bits and pieces of all of us.

The siblings' ways with each other was fascinating and, coming from a large family, I found it encouraging somehow to muddle through the challenges in my own family. Beautifully written.

I really loved sharing the memories of the McCulloch clan. The author fashioned a splendid journey filled with the ups and downs specific to a family of affluence.

Newly published memoir by a best friend, so I'm biased, and still, I KNOW this is a great read, beautifully written and recommended to all.

I listened to this book on Audible. It was really good.

Long Island beach house setting for family memoir. Glimpse into how the other half (or 1%)? lives.

Incredibly relatable and open.