Anna, Portia and Emery are summoned back home when their mother, Louise, has a massive heart attack. During Louise's time in the hospital recovering, the three children reminisce about their childhood, their odd parents, Buzzy and Louise, their even odder extended family and where the road has taken them.
"It has only been recently that Anna forgave her mother for a litany of crimes Anna had been carrying in her stomach like a knotted squid."
As soon as I started reading Drinking Closer to Home, it felt so much like a memoir, I had to look at the copyright page just to make sure that it said "fiction" at the front. At the end of the book, the author interviews her own family, on whom the characters are based. What happens in between is pure magic.
Oh, how I cringed! Oh, how I laughed! Oh, how I felt compelled to turn the pages!
The very things that might make another family miserable are the very things that make this family work. The prolific swearing, the filthy house, and the unabashed drug use made me want to read the pages with my eyes half closed while learning about this crazy family. The humor, the brutal honesty, and the love made me want to want to be a part of it.
There were several scenes in the book that made me laugh out loud. There was one part in the book where we flashback to 1976 and the kids were visiting their grandparents Otto and Billie.
"Emory was hovering nearby, hiding himself from Otto, who had publicly called him Sissy Boy at least three times in the last hour. Emery thought that if only his grandfather could see the singing and dancing extravaganza of the Corny Kids Variety Show, he'd never call Emery a sissy again."
Emery was my favorite character in the book. He was embarrassed by his family, but didn't like being on the outside of things either. His struggle with his identity both in and out of his family moved me deeply.
All of the characters in this book were, in a word, colorful!
If you enjoyed The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, you will fall head over heels backward in love drunk with Drinking Closer to Home by Jessica Anya Blau.
Many thanks to TLC Book Tours and Harper Perennial for inviting me to read this book!
Drinking Closer to Home Tour Page
Jessica Anya Blau is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, where she received her Masters in fiction. Currently, she is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Goucher College in Maryland. Jessica’s first novel, The Summer of Naked Swim Parties, was selected as a Best Summer Reading Book by the Today Show, the New York Post and New York Magazine.
Jessica's Website
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About the Book:
Drinking Closer to Home by Jessica Anya Blau
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Original edition (January 18, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061984027
ISBN-13: 978-0061984020
* Disclosure: A copy of this book was provided by the publisher to be a part of TLC Book Tours.
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3 comments:
I have a feeling I will like this book too! It kind of sounds like a train wreck - you don't want to watch, but you can't help yourself.
Kathy, EXACTLY! :)
Wow, this is the first time I've seen this book compared to THE GLASS CASTLE. That really intrigues me since I loved that book.
Thanks so much for being on this tour - I'm thrilled the book was such a hit!
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