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My Mother and Other Wild Animals
A mother and son embark on the road trip of a lifetime in a charming, poignant essay about making memories, facing fears, and donning fried-egg costumes by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Less.
Andrew Sean Greer can’t wait to get home to San Francisco after a writer’s residency in Kansas. But when his mother, Sandra, decides to come along for the ride, he has a new get her to crack a smile at every stop, whether breathtaking or breathtakingly kitschy.
He’s always known his mother to be as efficient and serious as a chemist (which she happens to be), always in gray, eyebrow cocked, and handling challenges with grace. To mix things up, Andrew develops an elaborate itinerary of planned chaos. Ahead, twenty-six hours of landmarks, pecan divinity, show tunes, and bizarre lodgings for the wild at heart. Best of all, mile by mile, mother and son realize how very much alike they are. And that this is just the escape they both needed.
Andrew Sean Greer can’t wait to get home to San Francisco after a writer’s residency in Kansas. But when his mother, Sandra, decides to come along for the ride, he has a new get her to crack a smile at every stop, whether breathtaking or breathtakingly kitschy.
He’s always known his mother to be as efficient and serious as a chemist (which she happens to be), always in gray, eyebrow cocked, and handling challenges with grace. To mix things up, Andrew develops an elaborate itinerary of planned chaos. Ahead, twenty-six hours of landmarks, pecan divinity, show tunes, and bizarre lodgings for the wild at heart. Best of all, mile by mile, mother and son realize how very much alike they are. And that this is just the escape they both needed.
1 pages, Audible Audio
Published April 16, 2024
614 people are currently reading
933 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Sean Greer
33 books3,169 followersAndrew Sean Greer (born 1970) is an American novelist and short story writer.
He is the bestselling author of The Story of a Marriage, which The New York Times has called an “inspired, lyrical novel,” and The Confessions of Max Tivoli, which was named one of the best books of 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle and received a California Book Award.
The child of two scientists, Greer studied writing with Robert Coover and Edmund White at Brown University, where he was the commencement speaker at his own graduation, where his unrehearsed remarks, critiquing Brown's admissions policies, caused a semi-riot. After years in New York working as a chauffeur, theater tech, television extra and unsuccessful writer, he moved to Missoula, Montana, where he received his Master of Fine Arts from The University of Montana, from where he soon moved to Seattle and two years later to San Francisco where he now lives. He is currently a fellow at the New York Public Library Cullman Center. He is an identical twin.
While in San Francisco, he began to publish in magazines before releasing a collection of his stories, How It Was for Me. His stories have appeared in Esquire, The Paris Review, The New Yorker and other national publications, and have been anthologized most recently in The Book of Other People, and The PEN/ O. Henry Prize Stories 2009. His first novel, The Path of Minor Planets, was published in 2001.
He is the bestselling author of The Story of a Marriage, which The New York Times has called an “inspired, lyrical novel,” and The Confessions of Max Tivoli, which was named one of the best books of 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle and received a California Book Award.
The child of two scientists, Greer studied writing with Robert Coover and Edmund White at Brown University, where he was the commencement speaker at his own graduation, where his unrehearsed remarks, critiquing Brown's admissions policies, caused a semi-riot. After years in New York working as a chauffeur, theater tech, television extra and unsuccessful writer, he moved to Missoula, Montana, where he received his Master of Fine Arts from The University of Montana, from where he soon moved to Seattle and two years later to San Francisco where he now lives. He is currently a fellow at the New York Public Library Cullman Center. He is an identical twin.
While in San Francisco, he began to publish in magazines before releasing a collection of his stories, How It Was for Me. His stories have appeared in Esquire, The Paris Review, The New Yorker and other national publications, and have been anthologized most recently in The Book of Other People, and The PEN/ O. Henry Prize Stories 2009. His first novel, The Path of Minor Planets, was published in 2001.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 159 reviews
June 5, 2024
if i five star a book by an author, i will read everything they write for the rest of forever.
including amazon-exclusive essays with old-timey standup titles.
this was so totally charming and lovely. i find greer's writing style funny as always, and his real cast of characters in his life i found so unforgettable i almost wish he would write full-on nonfiction instead of very lifey and very whimsical metafiction. my only complaint is that it's too short! the ending was abrupt and unwelcome.
lame.
bottom line: why can't things i like go on forever?
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
including amazon-exclusive essays with old-timey standup titles.
this was so totally charming and lovely. i find greer's writing style funny as always, and his real cast of characters in his life i found so unforgettable i almost wish he would write full-on nonfiction instead of very lifey and very whimsical metafiction. my only complaint is that it's too short! the ending was abrupt and unwelcome.
lame.
bottom line: why can't things i like go on forever?
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
August 17, 2024
This short story has quiet a few topics covered in such few pages. It was enlightening and an honest entertaining read.
March 20, 2024
3.5 "sweet, lovely, a little bit funny" stars !!
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Amazon Original Stories for an ecopy. This will be released April 2024. I am providing an honest review.
A few years back Mr. Greer and his mum did a road trip from Wichita Kansas to San Francisco. This is Mr. Greer's recollections and some photographs of that trip. What comes through is the author's love for his family, his immense respect for his mother, his struggles with severe anxiety and an appreciation of loving and living each day. Very enjoyable indeed but really only for fans of Mr. Greer.
Nothing earth shattering but worthwhile nonetheless ! (Get it NONE the LESS) Lol...Sorry Mr. Greer could not resist.
March 31, 2024
4★
“My experience of America is limited to ’80s malls, pickled watermelon rind, Broadway shows, and fog; it is akin to owning only volume J–K of an encyclopedia.”
We once lost a volume of our Encylopedia when a daughter's schoolfriend borrowed it and nobody ever saw it again. Frustrating when we needed whatever letter it was. Old-school, pre-digital research.
I loved Greer’s Pulitzer prize-winning Less, an awkward man for whom I developed a kind of maternal affection. After hearing Greer interviewed several times, I was keen to see what his family was like, particularly his mother.
They drive together from where he’s been teaching in Wichita, Kansas, back home to California, but by a very particular route where the author has pre-booked everything. He wants this to be memorable and has chosen extremely quirky places to stay. He should have researched better. Even an old-school travel agent could have warned him.
They are very open with each other, more than most parents and adult offspring, I think. He reveals a lot about his parents, his identical twin brother (who is happily heterosexual with a family), and his own gay self.
“What about the Pulitzer Prize ceremony, at which she was my guest? (I won the Fiction prize for my comic novel.) Here she met Mia Farrow, whose son Ronan had won the Public Service award for his articles on Harvey Weinstein. What was going through my mother’s mind when she said, ‘Ms. Farrow, I believe I am prouder of your son than I am of my own’? I remember laughing out loud. There is no impressing Dr. Sandra Greer.”
A short, entertaining and rather tender read.
Thanks to #NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for a copy of #MyMotherAndOtherWildAnimals
“My experience of America is limited to ’80s malls, pickled watermelon rind, Broadway shows, and fog; it is akin to owning only volume J–K of an encyclopedia.”
We once lost a volume of our Encylopedia when a daughter's schoolfriend borrowed it and nobody ever saw it again. Frustrating when we needed whatever letter it was. Old-school, pre-digital research.
I loved Greer’s Pulitzer prize-winning Less, an awkward man for whom I developed a kind of maternal affection. After hearing Greer interviewed several times, I was keen to see what his family was like, particularly his mother.
They drive together from where he’s been teaching in Wichita, Kansas, back home to California, but by a very particular route where the author has pre-booked everything. He wants this to be memorable and has chosen extremely quirky places to stay. He should have researched better. Even an old-school travel agent could have warned him.
They are very open with each other, more than most parents and adult offspring, I think. He reveals a lot about his parents, his identical twin brother (who is happily heterosexual with a family), and his own gay self.
“What about the Pulitzer Prize ceremony, at which she was my guest? (I won the Fiction prize for my comic novel.) Here she met Mia Farrow, whose son Ronan had won the Public Service award for his articles on Harvey Weinstein. What was going through my mother’s mind when she said, ‘Ms. Farrow, I believe I am prouder of your son than I am of my own’? I remember laughing out loud. There is no impressing Dr. Sandra Greer.”
A short, entertaining and rather tender read.
Thanks to #NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for a copy of #MyMotherAndOtherWildAnimals
April 1, 2024
The title is enough to make me want to read this, but then I saw the author and it became compulsory. Ever since I read Less I have enjoyed every word this man writes. My Mother and Other Wild Animals: An Essay is a short story from Amazon Originals - short yes, but very sweet.
The story is non fiction. Andrew takes a road trip with his mother, driving home to San Fransico from Kansas, via the Grand Canyon because his mother has never seen it. He plans a lot of rather outrageous stopovers just because, and his mother maintains her sense of humour about most of them. There are laugh aloud moments, but the dominant theme of the story is the relationship between the two of them and how they bond due to their likenesses.
Only a short essay but it is funny, moving and very real. Five stars from me.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.
The story is non fiction. Andrew takes a road trip with his mother, driving home to San Fransico from Kansas, via the Grand Canyon because his mother has never seen it. He plans a lot of rather outrageous stopovers just because, and his mother maintains her sense of humour about most of them. There are laugh aloud moments, but the dominant theme of the story is the relationship between the two of them and how they bond due to their likenesses.
Only a short essay but it is funny, moving and very real. Five stars from me.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.
May 5, 2024
Are our mothers wild animals?
They're wild spirits that have lived and loved and survived and have been hardened by the fires that burn us. So if we consider wild animals as beautiful creatures in sync with themselves and their environment, then I will go on and agree that our mothers are wild animals.
They are the ones that love us, our safety net, those that make us swear and laugh and cry. They are ours, and we are theirs, and that sense of belonging is precious.
Thank you, Andrew Greer, for reminding me.
An ARC gently provided by author/publisher via Netgalley.
They're wild spirits that have lived and loved and survived and have been hardened by the fires that burn us. So if we consider wild animals as beautiful creatures in sync with themselves and their environment, then I will go on and agree that our mothers are wild animals.
They are the ones that love us, our safety net, those that make us swear and laugh and cry. They are ours, and we are theirs, and that sense of belonging is precious.
Thank you, Andrew Greer, for reminding me.
An ARC gently provided by author/publisher via Netgalley.
May 15, 2024
Road Trip with Mom
Review of the Amazon Original Stories audiobook (April 16, 2024) released simultaneously with the Audible Originals audiobook.
This is a short memoir about a road trip from when the author travelled home to San Francisco from a mentoring job in Kansas and his mother asked to join him on the journey. Greer arranges for stays in out of the way kitschy tourist places where they sleep in anything from tents to teepees. Along the way they visit sites such as the Grand Canyon. Greer's mother is up for all of it including indulging her son's penchant for occasionally wearing a fried egg costume. Overall a lovely tale of mother and son bonding.
The Kindle edition includes several selfie photos taken along the journey.
Trivia and Links
Andrew Sean Greer is the author of several novels, the most popular of which is Less (Arthur Less #1, 2017) which won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His most recent novel is Less Is Lost (Arthur Less #2, 2022).
You can watch for current and past Amazon Original Stories which are usually paired with their Audible Original narrations at an Amazon page here (link goes to Amazon US, adjust for your own country or region).
Bonus Track
For those without a Kindle, you can still read this story via the Kindle App 😊.
Review of the Amazon Original Stories audiobook (April 16, 2024) released simultaneously with the Audible Originals audiobook.
Born to southern parents, I am a suburban Maryland boy who now lives in San Francisco. My experience of America is limited to ’80s malls, pickled watermelon rind, Broadway shows, and fog; it is akin to owning only volume J–K of an encyclopedia.
This is a short memoir about a road trip from when the author travelled home to San Francisco from a mentoring job in Kansas and his mother asked to join him on the journey. Greer arranges for stays in out of the way kitschy tourist places where they sleep in anything from tents to teepees. Along the way they visit sites such as the Grand Canyon. Greer's mother is up for all of it including indulging her son's penchant for occasionally wearing a fried egg costume. Overall a lovely tale of mother and son bonding.
The Kindle edition includes several selfie photos taken along the journey.
Trivia and Links
Andrew Sean Greer is the author of several novels, the most popular of which is Less (Arthur Less #1, 2017) which won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His most recent novel is Less Is Lost (Arthur Less #2, 2022).
You can watch for current and past Amazon Original Stories which are usually paired with their Audible Original narrations at an Amazon page here (link goes to Amazon US, adjust for your own country or region).
Bonus Track
For those without a Kindle, you can still read this story via the Kindle App 😊.
March 25, 2024
“Not everyone wants to travel with their mother. But my mother and I have an agreement : I will take her on a wacky trip, she will complain the whole time, and together we’ll love every minute.”
My Mother And Other Wild Animals is an essay by award-winning, best-selling American author, Andrew Sean Greer. Back in 2016, in dire need of paid work, Greer takes a one-month teaching position in Wichita, Kansas, where he’ll be paid to “meet with creative writing students and give feedback on their short stories. No teaching, no class time, no committees or requirements outside of free advice”. His own car not up to the trip from San Francisco, he borrows his mother’s diesel VW Beetle. He takes the southern route: Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
When he is about due to return, his mom suggests that she join him for the return road trip: she’s never seen the Grand Canyon. He resolves to provide that dash of colour, to baffle and amuse as best he can. He plans out a route via the Grand Canyon, and for every stop, “I choose the wackiest lodgings I can find. Sleeping in a giant chicken, an underground bunker, a hot-air balloon—not those things, but those kinds of things.”
Dr Sandra Greer is working on a textbook to be entitled Elements of Ethics for Physical Scientists, in which she hopes future scientists and engineers might consider not just the question of “can we?” but, more importantly, “should we?”
For the sake of storytelling and comedy, Greer has painted his mother as a patient but stern custodian of science and realism and himself as a wild and carefree exhibition of creativity and idealism. “The truth is, we are almost identical.”
But he notes “Leaving her husband must have felt like leaping off a cliff into the swift-flowing river of the unknown; leaving her laboratory in Maryland for a life near me and my brother in California, a move she made in her sixties, must have felt like losing all your luggage in a foreign country, a country whose border has closed.”
And the Grand Canyon? “Perhaps we were both unimpressed by the Grand Canyon because the awe of infinity so many people feel, the satisfying horror of the bottomless darkness of things that such a sight reveals, the tear in the universe that lets the hellhounds in, is something my mother and I know perfectly well. It is the first thing we see each morning. We step over it like a crack in the sidewalk and go on. How can the Grand Canyon compete?”
Greer concludes: “I have learned to flood my fears with optimism and not let mere terror make me miss the best of life. I believe I learned it from my mother.” His entertaining, funny, moving essay is enhanced with a few quirky photographs.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories
My Mother And Other Wild Animals is an essay by award-winning, best-selling American author, Andrew Sean Greer. Back in 2016, in dire need of paid work, Greer takes a one-month teaching position in Wichita, Kansas, where he’ll be paid to “meet with creative writing students and give feedback on their short stories. No teaching, no class time, no committees or requirements outside of free advice”. His own car not up to the trip from San Francisco, he borrows his mother’s diesel VW Beetle. He takes the southern route: Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
When he is about due to return, his mom suggests that she join him for the return road trip: she’s never seen the Grand Canyon. He resolves to provide that dash of colour, to baffle and amuse as best he can. He plans out a route via the Grand Canyon, and for every stop, “I choose the wackiest lodgings I can find. Sleeping in a giant chicken, an underground bunker, a hot-air balloon—not those things, but those kinds of things.”
Dr Sandra Greer is working on a textbook to be entitled Elements of Ethics for Physical Scientists, in which she hopes future scientists and engineers might consider not just the question of “can we?” but, more importantly, “should we?”
For the sake of storytelling and comedy, Greer has painted his mother as a patient but stern custodian of science and realism and himself as a wild and carefree exhibition of creativity and idealism. “The truth is, we are almost identical.”
But he notes “Leaving her husband must have felt like leaping off a cliff into the swift-flowing river of the unknown; leaving her laboratory in Maryland for a life near me and my brother in California, a move she made in her sixties, must have felt like losing all your luggage in a foreign country, a country whose border has closed.”
And the Grand Canyon? “Perhaps we were both unimpressed by the Grand Canyon because the awe of infinity so many people feel, the satisfying horror of the bottomless darkness of things that such a sight reveals, the tear in the universe that lets the hellhounds in, is something my mother and I know perfectly well. It is the first thing we see each morning. We step over it like a crack in the sidewalk and go on. How can the Grand Canyon compete?”
Greer concludes: “I have learned to flood my fears with optimism and not let mere terror make me miss the best of life. I believe I learned it from my mother.” His entertaining, funny, moving essay is enhanced with a few quirky photographs.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories
July 22, 2024
This is a short story that I recommend reading if you need a break from heavy reading. The author is taking a temporary position across the country and his mother decides to accompany him. They decide to stop at as many quirky, unusual places as they can, such as the Wigwam Motel with its concrete teepees. It was humorous but not without very thought-provoking moments.
November 18, 2024
This is so funny and sweet!
June 5, 2024
I solely requested this book for the title. My mother and other wild animals. Even when I knew that Greer received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel Less, still it didn't click me it's the same Greer.
So that definitely raised my excitement even more but I was disappointed beyond my expectations.
There is nothing really wild about this book. It was mundane and apart from some interesting parts this short novella didn't catch my attention. This started off great. I was enjoying it and then I wasn't. I literally thanked that it was short because this would definitely had been my first DNF.
It is well written of course but it is just dull and uninteresting. So no, not for me.
Thank you Netgalley and Amazon original stories for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.
So that definitely raised my excitement even more but I was disappointed beyond my expectations.
There is nothing really wild about this book. It was mundane and apart from some interesting parts this short novella didn't catch my attention. This started off great. I was enjoying it and then I wasn't. I literally thanked that it was short because this would definitely had been my first DNF.
It is well written of course but it is just dull and uninteresting. So no, not for me.
Thank you Netgalley and Amazon original stories for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.
May 6, 2024
Son reminisces on times with his mother. Most notably he announces his sexual orientation and she does as well to him. This is out of my wheelhouse: I'm not certain where to go with the info.
Overall, I laughed and enjoyed a moment where he recognized how hard she worked on herself.
This is a quick read and nonfiction -- requires some thinking.
I feel like I missed the point, because I would have kept these memories private.
KU/Kindle Clean up -- Dusty Book Sniffers challenge
Overall, I laughed and enjoyed a moment where he recognized how hard she worked on herself.
This is a quick read and nonfiction -- requires some thinking.
I feel like I missed the point, because I would have kept these memories private.
KU/Kindle Clean up -- Dusty Book Sniffers challenge
May 28, 2024
This is a very quick 35 page essay. I actually listened to the audiobook which was narrated by the author himself. This is nonfiction about a roadtrip with his mother. It had me laughing because I could see me and my mom in their shoes. I found out the author is a twin. So am I. This essay gave me the tiniest little glimpse into the life and personality of the author and I loved it. I just wished it was longer. I’ve enjoyed other books he has written as well.
April 1, 2024
I feel like I have been abandoned by the author, I knew I was reading a short story but the ending felt too abrupt. I thoroughly enjoyed this eccentric account of a road trip. I loved the bittersweet memories, witty narrative and nostalgic vibes when American dream was actually a dream and the country felt larger than the world. I wish it were longer…
April 16, 2024
…but I want a whole book of essays like this from ASG.
April 27, 2024
This was fine. I would have enjoyed it more, I think, if I was already familiar with the author's work -- I picked it up on a whim because of the delightful title.
May 10, 2024
“I know I’m efficient Tell me I’m beautiful…
it is the two of us, me and my mom, against this unaccountable, maddening, fascinating world…
she has awakened to watch the sunrise and sits in her brass bed, alternating reading and looking out at the desert as, slowly, the dawn lights one Joshua tree after another, and the little cactuses covered in their strange fur, and the distant mountains, in stripes of mothwing blue, Monarch orange, of cantaloupe and peach.”
it is the two of us, me and my mom, against this unaccountable, maddening, fascinating world…
she has awakened to watch the sunrise and sits in her brass bed, alternating reading and looking out at the desert as, slowly, the dawn lights one Joshua tree after another, and the little cactuses covered in their strange fur, and the distant mountains, in stripes of mothwing blue, Monarch orange, of cantaloupe and peach.”
May 10, 2024
Very sweet.
A cute, sweet, heartfelt story about family. Specifically a son and his Mom, and his efforts to make her happy!!
A cute, sweet, heartfelt story about family. Specifically a son and his Mom, and his efforts to make her happy!!
June 5, 2024
Love this story!
September 20, 2024
A quick read with several laugh out loud moments. The funeral plan was my favourite part of the book and I can see several family members deciding this is a good idea!
December 22, 2024
It’s a story of adventure and new challenges and bringing yourself out of your shell to experience new things and new experiences.. Confronting fears and just learning to live life..
very short story maybe a hour long..
very short story maybe a hour long..
April 30, 2024
Sort of strange but interesting. Listened to audio.
Mother and son Cross country road trip with their history thrown in.
Mother and son Cross country road trip with their history thrown in.
April 25, 2024
Entertaining , well told
A mother and son go on a road trip together. As the author described all the places they visited and the wacky places they stayed, I felt like a silent backseat passenger. The trip was very entertaining and I'm glad we went along for the ride!
A mother and son go on a road trip together. As the author described all the places they visited and the wacky places they stayed, I felt like a silent backseat passenger. The trip was very entertaining and I'm glad we went along for the ride!
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February 1, 2025very lovely, i hope Nur will also take me on a roadtrip in my seventies
May 17, 2024
This short essay is a travel memoir and a tribute to the authors time with his mother. It will maybe mean more to someone who has read his books. I would have wanted more of the road trip and descriptions of places.
April 19, 2024
I almost didn’t read My Mother and Other Wild Animals by Andrew Sean Greer. I saw the title early in the day on Amazon and thought it was hilarious. Once I realized it was a short story, I passed over it. Late that night a good friend serendipitously messaged me about it, and said she would be reading it because it was currently a Prime Read (Audible too!). I decided unknowable forces in the universe were telling me to read it, and I’m really glad I did! It was a great story, and I was introduced to author Andrew Sean Greer, who astonishingly was unfamiliar to me!
The things that made it a great story were its honesty, candor, humor, and sensitivity. It’s a wonderful memory of a moment in time a mother and her son went on a road trip. That may provoke revulsion and horror in some, but I had a great road trip mom and he had me when he took his mother’s request to accompany him on his drive back from Wichita, Kansas to their California home state seriously. On short notice he spent great attention and effort to craft a travel experience that would be unforgettable for her, paying particular attention to overnight accommodations, road food experiences, and attractions no one should miss, including Grand Canyon, something she especially wanted to see.
The book goes beyond the scenic route they took, and included contemplations about how they were similar to each other, their shared family life before and after her divorce, the challenges they’d experienced, and reflections on how they were processing the trip (she never discouraged his proclivity of throwing his fried egg costume on for all stops, including pumping gas). There is a lot packed into 35 pages, and it went by in the wink of an eye, with me hungry for more. I immediately looked into other books by Greer, including his 2018 Pulitzer Prize winning Less. You can never have too many favorite authors!
The things that made it a great story were its honesty, candor, humor, and sensitivity. It’s a wonderful memory of a moment in time a mother and her son went on a road trip. That may provoke revulsion and horror in some, but I had a great road trip mom and he had me when he took his mother’s request to accompany him on his drive back from Wichita, Kansas to their California home state seriously. On short notice he spent great attention and effort to craft a travel experience that would be unforgettable for her, paying particular attention to overnight accommodations, road food experiences, and attractions no one should miss, including Grand Canyon, something she especially wanted to see.
The book goes beyond the scenic route they took, and included contemplations about how they were similar to each other, their shared family life before and after her divorce, the challenges they’d experienced, and reflections on how they were processing the trip (she never discouraged his proclivity of throwing his fried egg costume on for all stops, including pumping gas). There is a lot packed into 35 pages, and it went by in the wink of an eye, with me hungry for more. I immediately looked into other books by Greer, including his 2018 Pulitzer Prize winning Less. You can never have too many favorite authors!
June 16, 2024
I’m all about irony, so on Father’s Day, when I’m missing my dad, I decided to read this essay by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Andrew Sean Greer, about his mother.
“Not just in youth do we need new vistas, or new ways of looking at an old one: a tilted view, to baffle and amuse.”
As he plans to drive home to San Francisco from a month-long writer’s residency in Wichita, Kansas, Andrew gets a surprise from his mother: she wants to fly out to meet him and they can drive back together. His mother, a chemist, has always been a serious person, not prone to flights of fancy.
Andrew plans the perfect road trip home, designed to amuse his mostly unflappable mother. They travel through kitschy tourist attractions, and if there’s a unique place to stay, he books a reservation there. They stay in a wigwam-themed resort, a haunted Wild West hotel, and many others.
While Andrew has always thought of his mother as a serious person, she has made some waves in her own life—telling him that she is a lesbian shortly after he came out as a teenager, and ending her marriage to live her true life.
This was a moving essay, full of emotion, humor, and highlight-worthy sentences. I’m glad to have been a secret passenger on this road trip!
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/getbookedwithlarry/.
Check out my best reads of 2023 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2023.html.
“Not just in youth do we need new vistas, or new ways of looking at an old one: a tilted view, to baffle and amuse.”
As he plans to drive home to San Francisco from a month-long writer’s residency in Wichita, Kansas, Andrew gets a surprise from his mother: she wants to fly out to meet him and they can drive back together. His mother, a chemist, has always been a serious person, not prone to flights of fancy.
Andrew plans the perfect road trip home, designed to amuse his mostly unflappable mother. They travel through kitschy tourist attractions, and if there’s a unique place to stay, he books a reservation there. They stay in a wigwam-themed resort, a haunted Wild West hotel, and many others.
While Andrew has always thought of his mother as a serious person, she has made some waves in her own life—telling him that she is a lesbian shortly after he came out as a teenager, and ending her marriage to live her true life.
This was a moving essay, full of emotion, humor, and highlight-worthy sentences. I’m glad to have been a secret passenger on this road trip!
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/getbookedwithlarry/.
Check out my best reads of 2023 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2023.html.
April 3, 2024
In 2016 (before his Pulitzer Prize for Less), Greer borrowed his mother's car to drive from San Francisco to Wichita, where he spent a month advising college students on their creative writing. His mother, Sandra decided to join him for the return trip as she has always wanted to see the Grand Canyon. To make the trip more fun Sean organised stop-offs and overnight stays in interesting places with the most unusual accomodation he could find in an attempt to amuse his mother.
This short essay written about that road trip is a touching and humorous portrayal of a mother and son who have a strong bond forged in their similar natures. Sandra is not easily amused or impressed. She is after all an eminent scientist (an Emeritus Professor of Chemistry of the University of Maryland) who is working on her own book, on ethics for physical scientists. But it turns out that Greer knows his mother and her sense of humour well and this is just the trip they needed. I could happily read a whole book of essays about Greer and his mother.
With thanks to Amazon Original Stories via Netgalley for a copy to read
This short essay written about that road trip is a touching and humorous portrayal of a mother and son who have a strong bond forged in their similar natures. Sandra is not easily amused or impressed. She is after all an eminent scientist (an Emeritus Professor of Chemistry of the University of Maryland) who is working on her own book, on ethics for physical scientists. But it turns out that Greer knows his mother and her sense of humour well and this is just the trip they needed. I could happily read a whole book of essays about Greer and his mother.
With thanks to Amazon Original Stories via Netgalley for a copy to read
March 31, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and to Amazon Original Stories for the ARC of Andrew Sean Greer's My Mother and Other Wild Animals.
I definitely felt the affects of COVID time-lapse when reading this and having Less be noted as the 2018 Pulitzer winner - I could have sworn it was both closer and further away - if you have not read it, definitely do it, it's such a fun book.
My Mother and Other Wild Animals is first) an amazing title and second) a heartfelt and humorous love letter to Greer's mother. Having also roadtripped to the Grand Canyon with my mother, I felt that same balance of "we are so different but also the same" that Greer so excellently navigates here. He flawlessly blends familial history with the present and the prospects for the future and he seamlessly leads readers across the United States and across their relationship. With this being an essay it is intentionally short and direct, but Greer's skill with words, transitions, and plot highlights make this an engaging short read. If it were longer, I would read that too. Greer is an exceptional voice of our time period, and I continue to look forward to all his upcoming works.
I definitely felt the affects of COVID time-lapse when reading this and having Less be noted as the 2018 Pulitzer winner - I could have sworn it was both closer and further away - if you have not read it, definitely do it, it's such a fun book.
My Mother and Other Wild Animals is first) an amazing title and second) a heartfelt and humorous love letter to Greer's mother. Having also roadtripped to the Grand Canyon with my mother, I felt that same balance of "we are so different but also the same" that Greer so excellently navigates here. He flawlessly blends familial history with the present and the prospects for the future and he seamlessly leads readers across the United States and across their relationship. With this being an essay it is intentionally short and direct, but Greer's skill with words, transitions, and plot highlights make this an engaging short read. If it were longer, I would read that too. Greer is an exceptional voice of our time period, and I continue to look forward to all his upcoming works.
April 3, 2024
When Pulitzer Prize winner author Andrew Greer plans to return back to San Francisco after a brief work stint in the city of Wichita, Kansas, what his mom suggests next results in a road trip across various cities of the United States with a mandatory stop at the Grand Canyon.
This poignant essay by the author of Less gives the reader a glimpse into Andrew Greer as a person, his love for whimsy, the characteristics he shared with his mother, be it constant worry or them being attracted to people of their own sex - In a way, consider this essay as one of the chapters of the autobiography of Andrew Greer if he ever plans to pen one.
This short but sweet essay has all characteristics that make it a pleasant read - posing for pictures in devil egg costumes, staying in places that are part weird, and part whimsy (and definitely not anyone’s first choice to stay the night to get rest) and planning a funeral for their mother while she’s still alive so she could witness it. This essay is equal parts hilarious, huge parts whimsy but doesn’t fail to tug at your heart strings.
Rating: 4/5
This poignant essay by the author of Less gives the reader a glimpse into Andrew Greer as a person, his love for whimsy, the characteristics he shared with his mother, be it constant worry or them being attracted to people of their own sex - In a way, consider this essay as one of the chapters of the autobiography of Andrew Greer if he ever plans to pen one.
This short but sweet essay has all characteristics that make it a pleasant read - posing for pictures in devil egg costumes, staying in places that are part weird, and part whimsy (and definitely not anyone’s first choice to stay the night to get rest) and planning a funeral for their mother while she’s still alive so she could witness it. This essay is equal parts hilarious, huge parts whimsy but doesn’t fail to tug at your heart strings.
Rating: 4/5
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