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From Scarsdale: A Childhood
From Scarsdale is an evocative and lyrical memoir of a haunted childhood in Scarsdale, New
York. With a cancer diagnosis in his early forties, the author is compelled to revisit and resolve
the mystery of his family's sadness. The fourth of six children in an Irish-American household
distinctly out-of-place in this affluent suburb of New York City, O'Brien grows up in a
claustrophobic milieu of secrecy, lies, and mental illness. The turning point in his maturation is
an older brother's attempted suicide -- an event he witnesses firsthand. From Scarsdale traces
with sensitivity the complex histories and dynamics that lead to this trauma, as O'Brien
investigates the psychologies of his parents, themselves the survivors of painful childhoods in
Scarsdale. Then, simultaneously disturbed and catalyzed by his brother's depression, and his
own developing obsessive-compulsive disorder, the adolescent O'Brien discovers literature and
the theatre as an escape, though it will take years for an actual liberation to occur. In many
ways this memoir is that liberation, as his ambition here has been to tell "the story of who I am
and where I'm from, with honesty, insight, and something like forgiveness. To try to leave the
old place behind."
With the specificity and aching affection of William Maxwell's Ancestors, and the
impressionistic, mosaic-like structure of Michael Ondaatje's Running in the Family, this book's
subject is ultimately, like all memoir, the solace and the conundrum of memory. From Scarsdale
is a rare book, uniquely told, and a poignant example of the redemptive power of a true story.
York. With a cancer diagnosis in his early forties, the author is compelled to revisit and resolve
the mystery of his family's sadness. The fourth of six children in an Irish-American household
distinctly out-of-place in this affluent suburb of New York City, O'Brien grows up in a
claustrophobic milieu of secrecy, lies, and mental illness. The turning point in his maturation is
an older brother's attempted suicide -- an event he witnesses firsthand. From Scarsdale traces
with sensitivity the complex histories and dynamics that lead to this trauma, as O'Brien
investigates the psychologies of his parents, themselves the survivors of painful childhoods in
Scarsdale. Then, simultaneously disturbed and catalyzed by his brother's depression, and his
own developing obsessive-compulsive disorder, the adolescent O'Brien discovers literature and
the theatre as an escape, though it will take years for an actual liberation to occur. In many
ways this memoir is that liberation, as his ambition here has been to tell "the story of who I am
and where I'm from, with honesty, insight, and something like forgiveness. To try to leave the
old place behind."
With the specificity and aching affection of William Maxwell's Ancestors, and the
impressionistic, mosaic-like structure of Michael Ondaatje's Running in the Family, this book's
subject is ultimately, like all memoir, the solace and the conundrum of memory. From Scarsdale
is a rare book, uniquely told, and a poignant example of the redemptive power of a true story.
- GenresMemoir
216 pages, Paperback
Published October 31, 2023
1 person is currently reading
89 people want to read
About the author
Dan O'Brien
25 books16 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Dan O’Brien’s plays include THE BODY OF AN AMERICAN (Primary Stages, New York; Gate Theatre, London), THE HOUSE IN SCARSDALE: A MEMOIR FOR THE STAGE (The Theatre @ Boston Court), THE CHERRY SISTERS REVISITED (Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival), THE VOYAGE OF THE CARCASS (Page 73 Productions; SoHo Playhouse), THE DEAR BOY (Second Stage Theatre), and many others. His playwriting awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama and Performance Art, the Horton Foote Prize for Outstanding New American Play, the inaugural Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama, the PEN Center USA Award for Drama, and the L. Arnold Weissberger Award. O’Brien was twice the Tennessee Williams Fellow in Playwriting at Sewanee, the Hodder Fellow playwright-in-residence at Princeton University, and the inaugural Djerassi Fellow in Playwriting at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. O’Brien is also a librettist and an award-winning poet whose collections, WAR REPORTER, SCARSDALE, and NEW LIFE, are published in the U.S. and the U.K.
Dan O’Brien’s plays include THE BODY OF AN AMERICAN (Primary Stages, New York; Gate Theatre, London), THE HOUSE IN SCARSDALE: A MEMOIR FOR THE STAGE (The Theatre @ Boston Court), THE CHERRY SISTERS REVISITED (Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival), THE VOYAGE OF THE CARCASS (Page 73 Productions; SoHo Playhouse), THE DEAR BOY (Second Stage Theatre), and many others. His playwriting awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama and Performance Art, the Horton Foote Prize for Outstanding New American Play, the inaugural Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama, the PEN Center USA Award for Drama, and the L. Arnold Weissberger Award. O’Brien was twice the Tennessee Williams Fellow in Playwriting at Sewanee, the Hodder Fellow playwright-in-residence at Princeton University, and the inaugural Djerassi Fellow in Playwriting at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. O’Brien is also a librettist and an award-winning poet whose collections, WAR REPORTER, SCARSDALE, and NEW LIFE, are published in the U.S. and the U.K.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 18, 2026
"I hope her childhood has been and will be boring, unencumbered, defined by love, and harrowing only in the mundane, necessary ways. I hope she will forgive me as I have forgiven my family."
As always, Dan's words made me think, feel and heal. There's a beauty to the lyricism of his writing that gets me like no other author has before. What a journey, and how lucky we are that he lived to tell the tale.
As always, Dan's words made me think, feel and heal. There's a beauty to the lyricism of his writing that gets me like no other author has before. What a journey, and how lucky we are that he lived to tell the tale.
June 14, 2024
I'm not used to reading poetry, so perhaps that's why I didn't click with the style of telling a story of childhood. It was a sad story, that's for sure. I was hoping to find some commonality to my own, at least in how to process and deal with it. But I'm a fan of his wife, and feel so much for what they have been through.
September 5, 2025
Maybe because the author is a poet, the writing was very image-heavy and flowery. This made it a slower read for me, and also removed me from the immediacy of the abuse he's writing about. He says his family is abusive, but then he sort of talks around all the stories so I was left thinking "Okay, but they really don't seem abusive."
January 25, 2024
This book is beautiful. Beautifully written, and heartbreaking yet hopeful. I know of Dan O'Brien because he's married to one of my favorite podcast hosts, Jessica St. Clair. He is a brilliant writer.
October 28, 2023
Dan as always is a brilliant writer and weaves his words around my heart.
December 29, 2023
Sad and Disturbing, but somehow hopeful. It took my breath away.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews