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Dad, Love, Me: A Memoir
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE • Written in the form of a letter to his ailing father, this debut memoir from the bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook explores the complicated burden of caring for an abusive parent who is dying—this is Matthew Quick’s most personal and potent work to date.
“This book will gut you and then, somehow, put you back together.” —Scott Galloway • “Dad, Love, Me is a masterpiece….It will change people’s lives.” —Lori Gottlieb • “A gut punch of a memoir…What a gift this book is.” —Catherine Newman • “For all its heavy subject matter, the book has a remarkably light touch and sense of grace.” —Kirkus Reviews
“What begins as an excavation of childhood trauma gradually becomes something rarer and more enlightening: an account of what happens when forgiveness arrives only after the parent who most needs it begins losing the ability to understand it....It’s difficult to read this book without feeling that some redemption and reconciliation—between parents and children, between scarred memory and forgiveness—have become possible.” —The New York Times
On the surface, Matthew Quick seemed to have it all—a loving wife, a thriving career as a novelist, and a beautiful home. He’d traveled all over the world advocating for mental health awareness, standing before crowds as a success story. But secretly, he was depressed and some days, he didn’t want to live.
Years earlier, when he first told his father he wanted to be a novelist, the response was immediate and brutal: “Idiot!” That voice—angry and belittling—would echo through Quick’s mind for years. He channeled his pain into his debut novel, The Silver Linings Playbook, crafting a complex father-son dynamic drawn straight from his own life. The book became a New York Times bestseller and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. Still, the approval Quick longed for never came. His father remained cold and withholding. The deeper the rift between them grew, the deeper Quick sank into anxiety and addiction.
In this book, Quick takes readers deep into his psyche, as he wrestles with both his own mental health and his father’s cognitive decline. A health scare finally forces Quick to get sober, but then, overcome by creative paralysis, writer’s block threatens to end his career. The blank page is unbearable. As his desperation for healing peaks, Quick turns to a Jungian analyst he nicknames “Zeus.” In the safety of analysis, as Quick’s repressed pain and shame surface, he finally cracks. Just as he is putting himself back together, his father is diagnosed with dementia.
Suddenly, the clock is ticking. If there is ever going to be reconciliation, it has to happen now. Quick and his wife pack up their lives in coastal North Carolina, drive eight hours, and move into a house just around the corner from Quick’s parents, on an island right outside of Beaufort, South Carolina. There, as his father slips further and further away, Quick races to make a healing connection.
Dad, Love, Me is Quick’s raw, vulnerable, and deeply moving account of what it means to forgive a parent who never really knew how to love you. It’s about wounds that never fully heal, and the power of showing up anyway. This beautifully brave and life-affirming memoir is a must read for anyone who has been starved of love but wants to keep loving anyway.
“This book will gut you and then, somehow, put you back together.” —Scott Galloway • “Dad, Love, Me is a masterpiece….It will change people’s lives.” —Lori Gottlieb • “A gut punch of a memoir…What a gift this book is.” —Catherine Newman • “For all its heavy subject matter, the book has a remarkably light touch and sense of grace.” —Kirkus Reviews
“What begins as an excavation of childhood trauma gradually becomes something rarer and more enlightening: an account of what happens when forgiveness arrives only after the parent who most needs it begins losing the ability to understand it....It’s difficult to read this book without feeling that some redemption and reconciliation—between parents and children, between scarred memory and forgiveness—have become possible.” —The New York Times
On the surface, Matthew Quick seemed to have it all—a loving wife, a thriving career as a novelist, and a beautiful home. He’d traveled all over the world advocating for mental health awareness, standing before crowds as a success story. But secretly, he was depressed and some days, he didn’t want to live.
Years earlier, when he first told his father he wanted to be a novelist, the response was immediate and brutal: “Idiot!” That voice—angry and belittling—would echo through Quick’s mind for years. He channeled his pain into his debut novel, The Silver Linings Playbook, crafting a complex father-son dynamic drawn straight from his own life. The book became a New York Times bestseller and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. Still, the approval Quick longed for never came. His father remained cold and withholding. The deeper the rift between them grew, the deeper Quick sank into anxiety and addiction.
In this book, Quick takes readers deep into his psyche, as he wrestles with both his own mental health and his father’s cognitive decline. A health scare finally forces Quick to get sober, but then, overcome by creative paralysis, writer’s block threatens to end his career. The blank page is unbearable. As his desperation for healing peaks, Quick turns to a Jungian analyst he nicknames “Zeus.” In the safety of analysis, as Quick’s repressed pain and shame surface, he finally cracks. Just as he is putting himself back together, his father is diagnosed with dementia.
Suddenly, the clock is ticking. If there is ever going to be reconciliation, it has to happen now. Quick and his wife pack up their lives in coastal North Carolina, drive eight hours, and move into a house just around the corner from Quick’s parents, on an island right outside of Beaufort, South Carolina. There, as his father slips further and further away, Quick races to make a healing connection.
Dad, Love, Me is Quick’s raw, vulnerable, and deeply moving account of what it means to forgive a parent who never really knew how to love you. It’s about wounds that never fully heal, and the power of showing up anyway. This beautifully brave and life-affirming memoir is a must read for anyone who has been starved of love but wants to keep loving anyway.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published July 21, 2026
About the author
Matthew Quick
10 books5,205 followersMatthew Quick is the New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook—which was made into an Oscar-winning film—and eight other novels, including We Are the Light, a #1 Indie Next Pick and a Book of the Month selection. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages, received a PEN/Hemingway Award Honorable Mention, was an LA Times Book Prize finalist, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, a #1 bestseller in Brazil, a Deutscher Jugendliteratur Preis 2016 (German Youth Literature Prize) nominee, and selected by Nancy Pearl as one of Summer’s Best Books for NPR. The Hollywood Reporter has named him one of Hollywood’s 25 Most Powerful Authors. Matthew lives with his wife, the novelist Alicia Bessette, in Beaufort, South Carolina.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
April 18, 2026
This book was felt….and really felt! Memoirs are raw and scary and you expose a lot, Matthew certainly did ….i personally felt very connected to this father/son relationship, and presently going through days of my mother with dementia… this hit home! Don’t hold resentment….FORGIVE…and LOVE.
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March 29, 2026Whether you want to or not, you will feel compelled to call your least favorite parent after reading this - hopefully with an open(ish?) heart.
July 22, 2026
i loved that i was able to treat this book like a collection of short stories: something i could pick up and put down as i pleased. and trust me, i needed breaks in between but i ALWAYS wanted to return to quick’s psyche
August 3, 2026
According to writer Czeslaw Milosz, “When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished.” Novelist and screenwriter Matthew Quick’s memoir, DAD, LOVE, ME --- the story of his decades-long fraught relationship with his father, Michael --- provides an extended case study of that maxim’s insight and its limitations. It illuminates both the depths of one man’s lifelong pain and the redemptive power of the written word.
Though he’s published nine novels, Quick is best known for his first, THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, which was transformed into a 2012 movie starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence that garnered eight Academy Award nominations. Sadly, that massive hit didn’t translate into a string of literary and film successes for Quick. On the contrary, it wasn’t too many years later that he spiraled into a sustained period of alcoholism, occasional panic attacks and writer’s block.
As Quick reveals in this memoir, written in the form of an extended letter to his father, the roots of his afflictions lay in his toxic relationship with a man who rose from modest circumstances to a career in the banking business, and ended it as a high-level executive of a publicly traded bank. Michael Quick’s abuse only rarely took physical form. Instead, he engaged in a relentless verbal assault against the eldest of his three children, constantly demeaning him for everything from his career choice, to his weight, to his lack of appreciation for what Michael constantly insisted were his tireless efforts to support the family. What made this behavior especially intolerable was its unpredictability, for as Quick puts it, he “never knew when the gun was going to go off.”
Quick methodically recounts several of their most intense confrontations --- including one encounter at the dinner table that grew violent and a tirade when Michael drove his son back to college on the weekend of his 19th birthday, after Quick's girlfriend ended their relationship. These vivid scenes make for painful reading, as one viscerally experiences the harm being inflicted by a heedless, self-absorbed father on a son who lacked the psychological tools to understand fully or defend himself against what was happening. Michael's “constant inability to be what I needed,” Quick writes, “made me hate you.”
Quick credits a therapist he nicknames Zeus (an allusion to the myth of the rebirth of Dionysus) for guiding him through more than 700 hours of Jungian analysis that offered him “a proper psychological relationship” with his past and enabled him to gain some insight into the reasons for his father’s emotional cruelty. In part, they lay in Michael's own upbringing by Quick’s grandfather --- a World War II combat veteran who, paradoxically, often was (with one striking exception) a source of comfort and support to his grandson --- and the actions of an older brother who was a less than ideal masculine role model. Quick takes the reader deep into these therapeutic encounters, all of which were on Zoom, offering a glimpse of the variety of techniques --- including active imagination and Quick's own writing --- that Zeus employs to burrow into the heart of his patient’s troubled psyche.
What makes DAD, LOVE, ME especially poignant is that, though he’s a main character, Michael Quick will never be able to read the book. Shortly after Michael retired from his banking job, he began to exhibit signs of dementia. By 2024, when Quick began writing the memoir with his mother's full permission, Michael's disease had progressed to the point where meaningful interaction with his son about their shared past no longer was possible, even as their relationship became more tender in the present. Because of that, Quick realized that he needed to “discard the needy-son mentality and put on the giving-father mentality.” And in that process, he came to understand, for all the healing he had to undergo, that “I am my father, and it's my job to redeem us both.”
In 2023, Quick and his wife, novelist Alicia Bessette, relocated from their home on North Carolina’s Outer Banks to Lady’s Island, South Carolina, near Beaufort, purchasing a house within walking distance of his parents’ retirement home. He offers several sad/funny scenes of caregiving for his father during that time. The relationship reaches an apex of melancholy on Super Bowl Sunday in 2025, when father and son, lifelong passionate Philadelphia Eagles fans, watch their team demolish the Kansas City Chiefs, a victory only one of them is capable of celebrating in the moment.
Though the elders they portray are markedly different, DAD, LOVE, ME feels like a worthy companion piece to Joe McGinniss, Jr.'s excellent 2025 memoir, DAMAGED PEOPLE, in their shared recognition that the pain inflicted by abusive or neglectful fathers doesn't emerge out of the ether. This is anything but an easy book to read. That's true both for those who have endured parental abuse and those who have experienced the trials of dealing with a loved one suffering from dementia.
In addition to unearthing the story of his own life with candor and grace, Matthew Quick has admirably fulfilled his goal of offering a frank account simultaneously tinged with optimism that may serve as inspiration for other sons and fathers to achieve some sort of reconciliation before their own opportunities to do that disappear. And in doing so, to amend Czeslaw Milosz's dictum, he reveals that the presence of a writer in the family sometimes offers more healing than hurt.
Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg
Though he’s published nine novels, Quick is best known for his first, THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, which was transformed into a 2012 movie starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence that garnered eight Academy Award nominations. Sadly, that massive hit didn’t translate into a string of literary and film successes for Quick. On the contrary, it wasn’t too many years later that he spiraled into a sustained period of alcoholism, occasional panic attacks and writer’s block.
As Quick reveals in this memoir, written in the form of an extended letter to his father, the roots of his afflictions lay in his toxic relationship with a man who rose from modest circumstances to a career in the banking business, and ended it as a high-level executive of a publicly traded bank. Michael Quick’s abuse only rarely took physical form. Instead, he engaged in a relentless verbal assault against the eldest of his three children, constantly demeaning him for everything from his career choice, to his weight, to his lack of appreciation for what Michael constantly insisted were his tireless efforts to support the family. What made this behavior especially intolerable was its unpredictability, for as Quick puts it, he “never knew when the gun was going to go off.”
Quick methodically recounts several of their most intense confrontations --- including one encounter at the dinner table that grew violent and a tirade when Michael drove his son back to college on the weekend of his 19th birthday, after Quick's girlfriend ended their relationship. These vivid scenes make for painful reading, as one viscerally experiences the harm being inflicted by a heedless, self-absorbed father on a son who lacked the psychological tools to understand fully or defend himself against what was happening. Michael's “constant inability to be what I needed,” Quick writes, “made me hate you.”
Quick credits a therapist he nicknames Zeus (an allusion to the myth of the rebirth of Dionysus) for guiding him through more than 700 hours of Jungian analysis that offered him “a proper psychological relationship” with his past and enabled him to gain some insight into the reasons for his father’s emotional cruelty. In part, they lay in Michael's own upbringing by Quick’s grandfather --- a World War II combat veteran who, paradoxically, often was (with one striking exception) a source of comfort and support to his grandson --- and the actions of an older brother who was a less than ideal masculine role model. Quick takes the reader deep into these therapeutic encounters, all of which were on Zoom, offering a glimpse of the variety of techniques --- including active imagination and Quick's own writing --- that Zeus employs to burrow into the heart of his patient’s troubled psyche.
What makes DAD, LOVE, ME especially poignant is that, though he’s a main character, Michael Quick will never be able to read the book. Shortly after Michael retired from his banking job, he began to exhibit signs of dementia. By 2024, when Quick began writing the memoir with his mother's full permission, Michael's disease had progressed to the point where meaningful interaction with his son about their shared past no longer was possible, even as their relationship became more tender in the present. Because of that, Quick realized that he needed to “discard the needy-son mentality and put on the giving-father mentality.” And in that process, he came to understand, for all the healing he had to undergo, that “I am my father, and it's my job to redeem us both.”
In 2023, Quick and his wife, novelist Alicia Bessette, relocated from their home on North Carolina’s Outer Banks to Lady’s Island, South Carolina, near Beaufort, purchasing a house within walking distance of his parents’ retirement home. He offers several sad/funny scenes of caregiving for his father during that time. The relationship reaches an apex of melancholy on Super Bowl Sunday in 2025, when father and son, lifelong passionate Philadelphia Eagles fans, watch their team demolish the Kansas City Chiefs, a victory only one of them is capable of celebrating in the moment.
Though the elders they portray are markedly different, DAD, LOVE, ME feels like a worthy companion piece to Joe McGinniss, Jr.'s excellent 2025 memoir, DAMAGED PEOPLE, in their shared recognition that the pain inflicted by abusive or neglectful fathers doesn't emerge out of the ether. This is anything but an easy book to read. That's true both for those who have endured parental abuse and those who have experienced the trials of dealing with a loved one suffering from dementia.
In addition to unearthing the story of his own life with candor and grace, Matthew Quick has admirably fulfilled his goal of offering a frank account simultaneously tinged with optimism that may serve as inspiration for other sons and fathers to achieve some sort of reconciliation before their own opportunities to do that disappear. And in doing so, to amend Czeslaw Milosz's dictum, he reveals that the presence of a writer in the family sometimes offers more healing than hurt.
Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Anyone that knows me well, knows that Matthew Quick is my favourite author and "The Silver Linings Playbook" is my favourite book. No mean feat considering that I read north of 300 books a year. So when I heard he was writing his memoir (part one) I immediately started working out how I was going to get my mitts on it as soon as possible. And then I found out it was to be in the form of a letter to his father and would focus mainly on their relationship. And then I got it and was torn. I really wanted to read it but I was also scared to... for many reasons which, spoiler alert - all turned out to be unfounded...
I read it in a day. Start to finish, not many breaks. Is that wise, I don't know. I do know that it will be re-read by the end of the year.
I then fretted about how I was going to review it. Having only reviewed non fiction a handful of times... But here we go...
As you read this book, you realise how much of himself the author puts into his fictional characters. And how much of his dad and their relationship. So much so that, at times, I almost forgot I was reading a memoir. Occasionally also wished that I wasn't, so hard hitting some of the examples were. I think in my past reviews for his fiction books that I have banged on about the author writing THE BEST wounded characters. Now I know why, it makes me slightly uncomfortable how much I love his books, especially my favourite. But I had absolutely no idea about the man behind the words. Now I know him a little bit better, is TSLP still my favourite book? Heck Yeah! Just maybe in a slightly different way. Quite how, I will no doubt find out when I do my annual re-read (listen) of it later this year.
I knew from "We are the Light" that he was going through Jungian Analysis and he describes the process here. Food for thought indeed for me and my issues in the future maybe. I also had fractious and fractured relationships with my parents, who are both no longer alive, so it is too late for me to reconcile with either. But I am glad that the author got his chance, and maybe also, this book will help others likewise.
Gosh, I do make it all to be doom and gloom. There are certainly quite detailed, very emotional, hard hitting, parts, but there are also plenty of lighter moments which do keep the book on an even keel and prevent it from getting too dark to handle.
Outwith the father/son/Jungian themes herein, I absolutely loved my Eagles being included so much. Especially whooping the Chiefs in the Superbowl! I had only just got into the NFL when I read TSLP so it was my introduction to all things E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles and, each season, I both thank and curse the author for this (occasional) cross to bear #GoBirds.
All that's left is to thanks the author for his brutal honesty, his warts and all, laid bare, accounts. His family and friends for supporting him, "Zeus" for guiding him, and the Publisher for inviting me to read this memoir.
I read it in a day. Start to finish, not many breaks. Is that wise, I don't know. I do know that it will be re-read by the end of the year.
I then fretted about how I was going to review it. Having only reviewed non fiction a handful of times... But here we go...
As you read this book, you realise how much of himself the author puts into his fictional characters. And how much of his dad and their relationship. So much so that, at times, I almost forgot I was reading a memoir. Occasionally also wished that I wasn't, so hard hitting some of the examples were. I think in my past reviews for his fiction books that I have banged on about the author writing THE BEST wounded characters. Now I know why, it makes me slightly uncomfortable how much I love his books, especially my favourite. But I had absolutely no idea about the man behind the words. Now I know him a little bit better, is TSLP still my favourite book? Heck Yeah! Just maybe in a slightly different way. Quite how, I will no doubt find out when I do my annual re-read (listen) of it later this year.
I knew from "We are the Light" that he was going through Jungian Analysis and he describes the process here. Food for thought indeed for me and my issues in the future maybe. I also had fractious and fractured relationships with my parents, who are both no longer alive, so it is too late for me to reconcile with either. But I am glad that the author got his chance, and maybe also, this book will help others likewise.
Gosh, I do make it all to be doom and gloom. There are certainly quite detailed, very emotional, hard hitting, parts, but there are also plenty of lighter moments which do keep the book on an even keel and prevent it from getting too dark to handle.
Outwith the father/son/Jungian themes herein, I absolutely loved my Eagles being included so much. Especially whooping the Chiefs in the Superbowl! I had only just got into the NFL when I read TSLP so it was my introduction to all things E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles and, each season, I both thank and curse the author for this (occasional) cross to bear #GoBirds.
All that's left is to thanks the author for his brutal honesty, his warts and all, laid bare, accounts. His family and friends for supporting him, "Zeus" for guiding him, and the Publisher for inviting me to read this memoir.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Dad, Love, Me by Matthew Quick is a heartbreaking, honest, and very highly recommended memoir about the troubling and disparaging relationship with his father, Mike, who now suffers from dementia. In the opening he writes, "I trust your soul to know what to do with my memoir." As a reader, I thank him for his courage, vulnerability, and honesty. I have been looking forward to reading this for months.
This memoir is an exceptionally well-written, emotionally honest account that is both brave and inspiring as Quick shares his memories and feelings being raised by a father who never really knew how to show love and encouragement. The unwavering support of his wife is ever present. Quick also found other supportive men who play a key role in his life. Those reading Quick's Substack know he has been struggling with writing this candid account of his fraught relationship with his father and his own recovery and participation in Jungian therapy. As his father slips further into dementia, Quick has been there to help both his father and mother. This has helped him find a connection and closure.
The chapters move back and forth in time while exploring his relationship with his father and his own struggles with drinking, anxiety, and writer's block. This is a very effective presentation as it mimics memories and thoughts being suddenly recalled during current events. Some chapters are to his father, recounting how demoralizing, cold, and cruel he was. Other chapters offer insight into the Zoom-based Jungian analysis he undertakes with a man he calls Zeus. Then there are the chapters recounting events in more recent times as his father's dementia takes hold.
What sets this memoir above and beyond others is the honesty about both memories and personal struggles. Quick hopes his account will help other men deal with the fraught relationships with their fathers and find healing, closure, and forgiveness, but others can also find healing. Honestly, many families can be difficult. There were several poignant passages I highlighted. One referred to advice he was given that the suffering he was experiencing was actually a gift from God. Quick needed to realize that everything good in his life was there because God allowed it to be there. In another impactful passage he recounted advice that he didn't have to tolerate being infected by his father's words. He could liberate himself, a very worthwhile concept to consider.
Dad, Love, Me is an excellence choice for those who appreciate memoirs, struggle with relationships due to fathers (or family members), and are seeking healing. Truly, everything about this memoir is outstanding, poignant, and deeply moving. Thanks to Avid Reader Press for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2026/0...
This memoir is an exceptionally well-written, emotionally honest account that is both brave and inspiring as Quick shares his memories and feelings being raised by a father who never really knew how to show love and encouragement. The unwavering support of his wife is ever present. Quick also found other supportive men who play a key role in his life. Those reading Quick's Substack know he has been struggling with writing this candid account of his fraught relationship with his father and his own recovery and participation in Jungian therapy. As his father slips further into dementia, Quick has been there to help both his father and mother. This has helped him find a connection and closure.
The chapters move back and forth in time while exploring his relationship with his father and his own struggles with drinking, anxiety, and writer's block. This is a very effective presentation as it mimics memories and thoughts being suddenly recalled during current events. Some chapters are to his father, recounting how demoralizing, cold, and cruel he was. Other chapters offer insight into the Zoom-based Jungian analysis he undertakes with a man he calls Zeus. Then there are the chapters recounting events in more recent times as his father's dementia takes hold.
What sets this memoir above and beyond others is the honesty about both memories and personal struggles. Quick hopes his account will help other men deal with the fraught relationships with their fathers and find healing, closure, and forgiveness, but others can also find healing. Honestly, many families can be difficult. There were several poignant passages I highlighted. One referred to advice he was given that the suffering he was experiencing was actually a gift from God. Quick needed to realize that everything good in his life was there because God allowed it to be there. In another impactful passage he recounted advice that he didn't have to tolerate being infected by his father's words. He could liberate himself, a very worthwhile concept to consider.
Dad, Love, Me is an excellence choice for those who appreciate memoirs, struggle with relationships due to fathers (or family members), and are seeking healing. Truly, everything about this memoir is outstanding, poignant, and deeply moving. Thanks to Avid Reader Press for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2026/0...
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Matthew Quick's newest book, a memoir about the impacts of being raised by an emotionally volatile and abusive father, fully shows the pain and torment of not receiving love and acknowledgment from those who should have loved us first and the most. The damage is deep, lasting and can color our interpretations of future expectations, experiences, and relationships.
The author didn't realize when he was growing up that he was part of a multigenerational cycle of extreme dysfunction and abuse. He didn't know that both his father and grandfather were also abused and mistreated by fathers who didn't know better. He only knew that he was continually humiliated, belittled, raged at and punished which made him feel unlovable and pushed him into several deep depressions and thoughts about suicide.
To Matthew's credit, it didn't break him. His spirit was strong enough that he sought help and understanding in years of therapy. He found other men that he could talk to, he found a loving wife who walked with him through the dark times. He survived. But he was still in constant emotional pain.
Then his father got dementia, and Matthew realized that his father's pride, acknowledgment, and love may never happen. That it was quite possible that the reconciliation and loving relationship he'd wanted all his life might never be. Now what?
This is where Matthew showed his true strength. He not only survived, he grew; in fact he soared. He and his wife moved into a house close to his parents so that he could help his aging mother provide care for the father who had caused him nothing but pain. As his father progressed in his dementia, Matthew slowly came to understand that his father too still had a small boy inside him seeking approval and love. Perhaps there was still time to make things better between them.
I think Quick shows great bravery in his vulnerability and openness. We see his struggles with mental health, and his talent in expressing himself makes readers feel what he felt. We come to understand with him what hard work therapy is, and how painful it can be to face your past and truly bring yourself to the other side of it. This book is raw, unflinching, and not an easy read. But it is an important one, and one I recommend most highly to anyone who has been in similar situations themselves or loves someone who has been.
Matthew Quick, I admire you. And you're right - you're going to help a lot of people with this book. This book gets a five-star rating from me.
My thanks to the author, and also to Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster for letting me access a DRC via NetGalley. Publication is 7/21/26. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.
The author didn't realize when he was growing up that he was part of a multigenerational cycle of extreme dysfunction and abuse. He didn't know that both his father and grandfather were also abused and mistreated by fathers who didn't know better. He only knew that he was continually humiliated, belittled, raged at and punished which made him feel unlovable and pushed him into several deep depressions and thoughts about suicide.
To Matthew's credit, it didn't break him. His spirit was strong enough that he sought help and understanding in years of therapy. He found other men that he could talk to, he found a loving wife who walked with him through the dark times. He survived. But he was still in constant emotional pain.
Then his father got dementia, and Matthew realized that his father's pride, acknowledgment, and love may never happen. That it was quite possible that the reconciliation and loving relationship he'd wanted all his life might never be. Now what?
This is where Matthew showed his true strength. He not only survived, he grew; in fact he soared. He and his wife moved into a house close to his parents so that he could help his aging mother provide care for the father who had caused him nothing but pain. As his father progressed in his dementia, Matthew slowly came to understand that his father too still had a small boy inside him seeking approval and love. Perhaps there was still time to make things better between them.
I think Quick shows great bravery in his vulnerability and openness. We see his struggles with mental health, and his talent in expressing himself makes readers feel what he felt. We come to understand with him what hard work therapy is, and how painful it can be to face your past and truly bring yourself to the other side of it. This book is raw, unflinching, and not an easy read. But it is an important one, and one I recommend most highly to anyone who has been in similar situations themselves or loves someone who has been.
Matthew Quick, I admire you. And you're right - you're going to help a lot of people with this book. This book gets a five-star rating from me.
My thanks to the author, and also to Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster for letting me access a DRC via NetGalley. Publication is 7/21/26. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: July 21, 2026
Matthew Quick is the author of “The Silver Linings Playbook”, as well as many others, but his new book, “Dad, Love, Me: A Memoir” is a poignant memoir about a strained relationship between a son and his abusive father and the forgiveness that comes after Quick’s father is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
“Love” is not an easy book to read. Quick’s father is abusive, physically and emotionally, and he left permanent emotional scars on young Matthew that stuck around into his adulthood. With the help of a Jungian analyst, Quick comes to terms with how his childhood contributes to his panic and anxiety that he suffers as an adult. Of course, as Matthew’s father, Mike, starts to struggle with the challenges of Alzheimer’s, the novel is emotional in a different way, as Matthew works toward mending the relationship before it’s too late.
Quick talks openly and candidly about his personal mental health struggles, as well as the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father and it is exceptionally powerful and brave. Quick identifies to his therapist that he wants to write this memoir so he can help other people, especially men, who are uncomfortable talking about their feelings and have underlying mental health issues that they don’t want to admit to. Although I’m sure “Love” serves just this purpose, it also helps Quick come to terms with his trauma and helps him overcome it.
“Love” is about a man’s desire for love, especially from the man who denied it to him his whole life. Quick, however, is able to maintain a healthy romantic relationship with his beloved wife, Alicia, and finally comes to terms with the harm his father caused him, provides forgiveness, and overcomes, which gives “Love” a heartwarming ending.
Much praise should go to Quick for opening up about his mental health struggles and his abusive childhood and hopefully “Love” encourages other people (men, in particular) to seek help. “Love” is a thought-provoking, heartbreaking (and heartwarming) read that covers some serious themes and topics, but it is definitely worth a read (just have tissues handy)!
Expected publication date: July 21, 2026
Matthew Quick is the author of “The Silver Linings Playbook”, as well as many others, but his new book, “Dad, Love, Me: A Memoir” is a poignant memoir about a strained relationship between a son and his abusive father and the forgiveness that comes after Quick’s father is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
“Love” is not an easy book to read. Quick’s father is abusive, physically and emotionally, and he left permanent emotional scars on young Matthew that stuck around into his adulthood. With the help of a Jungian analyst, Quick comes to terms with how his childhood contributes to his panic and anxiety that he suffers as an adult. Of course, as Matthew’s father, Mike, starts to struggle with the challenges of Alzheimer’s, the novel is emotional in a different way, as Matthew works toward mending the relationship before it’s too late.
Quick talks openly and candidly about his personal mental health struggles, as well as the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father and it is exceptionally powerful and brave. Quick identifies to his therapist that he wants to write this memoir so he can help other people, especially men, who are uncomfortable talking about their feelings and have underlying mental health issues that they don’t want to admit to. Although I’m sure “Love” serves just this purpose, it also helps Quick come to terms with his trauma and helps him overcome it.
“Love” is about a man’s desire for love, especially from the man who denied it to him his whole life. Quick, however, is able to maintain a healthy romantic relationship with his beloved wife, Alicia, and finally comes to terms with the harm his father caused him, provides forgiveness, and overcomes, which gives “Love” a heartwarming ending.
Much praise should go to Quick for opening up about his mental health struggles and his abusive childhood and hopefully “Love” encourages other people (men, in particular) to seek help. “Love” is a thought-provoking, heartbreaking (and heartwarming) read that covers some serious themes and topics, but it is definitely worth a read (just have tissues handy)!
August 2, 2026
Dad, Love, Me is Matthew Quick’s deeply personal memoir exploring his complicated relationship with his father, the pain of growing up in an emotionally difficult family, and the long, often messy journey toward understanding, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Through deeply vulnerable reflections, Quick examines how childhood experiences shaped his life while offering a hopeful look at the possibility of healing even the most fractured relationships.
I’ve been waiting months for this book, and it absolutely lived up to my expectations. Matthew Quick has long been one of my favorite authors, so I was incredibly excited to read his first work of nonfiction. Even though this is a memoir, it carries the same creativity, emotional depth, and beautifully crafted prose that I’ve always loved in his novels. His writing feels effortless while still being deeply intentional.
As someone writing a memoir of my own, this book resonated with me on another level. I learned so much simply by paying attention to how Quick structured his story, balanced reflection with narrative, and allowed difficult moments to breathe. I’ll definitely be taking lessons from this book back to my own writing. I also appreciated his honesty about the fears that come with publishing a memoir—especially the anxiety of how loved ones will be portrayed and how readers might respond. Those are the very same fears I wrestle with, and it was comforting to see another writer openly acknowledge them.
This is not an easy book to read emotionally. My heart broke for Matthew and for his father over and over again as they struggled through years of misunderstanding, hurt, and missed opportunities. Yet despite the sadness, this memoir is ultimately filled with hope. Watching the evolution of their father-son relationship was incredibly moving, and it reminded me that healing is possible even after years of pain.
This memoir left me emotional, inspired, and hopeful. It’s a beautiful reminder that while we can’t change the past, we can choose compassion, forgiveness, and the possibility of writing a different ending.
I’ve been waiting months for this book, and it absolutely lived up to my expectations. Matthew Quick has long been one of my favorite authors, so I was incredibly excited to read his first work of nonfiction. Even though this is a memoir, it carries the same creativity, emotional depth, and beautifully crafted prose that I’ve always loved in his novels. His writing feels effortless while still being deeply intentional.
As someone writing a memoir of my own, this book resonated with me on another level. I learned so much simply by paying attention to how Quick structured his story, balanced reflection with narrative, and allowed difficult moments to breathe. I’ll definitely be taking lessons from this book back to my own writing. I also appreciated his honesty about the fears that come with publishing a memoir—especially the anxiety of how loved ones will be portrayed and how readers might respond. Those are the very same fears I wrestle with, and it was comforting to see another writer openly acknowledge them.
This is not an easy book to read emotionally. My heart broke for Matthew and for his father over and over again as they struggled through years of misunderstanding, hurt, and missed opportunities. Yet despite the sadness, this memoir is ultimately filled with hope. Watching the evolution of their father-son relationship was incredibly moving, and it reminded me that healing is possible even after years of pain.
This memoir left me emotional, inspired, and hopeful. It’s a beautiful reminder that while we can’t change the past, we can choose compassion, forgiveness, and the possibility of writing a different ending.
August 3, 2026
There was a 1991 movie called "Regarding Henry," in which cold-hearted attorney Harrison Ford suffers a traumatic brain injury and emerges as a kinder, gentler guy. I thought of it while reading Matthew Quick's memoir about his abusive father who also becomes a kinder, gentler guy when he develops dementia.
Quick, author of The Silver Linings Playbook, obviously has father issues, and the book alternates between painful childhood memories and Quick's Jungian analysis in which he moves towards self-acceptance and forgiveness. There isn't the anger found in such parental horror stories as I'm Glad My Mom Died; Quick pretty quickly understands that his father was also a victim of an abusive dad (who was strangely loving and affectionate with Matthew), and that he dealt with his emotional wounds by transferring them to his oldest child.
I'm all for forgiving horrible parents who had their own damage (my mom was toxic), but I am uncomfortable with the therapist insisting that Quick has to love his dad in order to heal. The fact that the guy who repeatedly told Matthew he was worthless and physically assaulted him is now childishly enthusiastic about watching Philadelphia Eagles games together makes that an easier task, but IMO parents like that aren't owed anything, much less love.
Jungian therapy is heavy on mythology and archetypes, and it's more easily applied to men than women because of the sausage-fest of ancient gods. That was a little off-putting to me, but I suppose if a guy reads this book and is inspired to get help, it's worthwhile.
Quick, author of The Silver Linings Playbook, obviously has father issues, and the book alternates between painful childhood memories and Quick's Jungian analysis in which he moves towards self-acceptance and forgiveness. There isn't the anger found in such parental horror stories as I'm Glad My Mom Died; Quick pretty quickly understands that his father was also a victim of an abusive dad (who was strangely loving and affectionate with Matthew), and that he dealt with his emotional wounds by transferring them to his oldest child.
I'm all for forgiving horrible parents who had their own damage (my mom was toxic), but I am uncomfortable with the therapist insisting that Quick has to love his dad in order to heal. The fact that the guy who repeatedly told Matthew he was worthless and physically assaulted him is now childishly enthusiastic about watching Philadelphia Eagles games together makes that an easier task, but IMO parents like that aren't owed anything, much less love.
Jungian therapy is heavy on mythology and archetypes, and it's more easily applied to men than women because of the sausage-fest of ancient gods. That was a little off-putting to me, but I suppose if a guy reads this book and is inspired to get help, it's worthwhile.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Dad, Love, Me by Matthew Quick is a heartbreaking, honest, and highly recommended memoir about his troubled relationship with his father, Mike, who now suffers from dementia. It is honestly hard to read sometimes. As a longtime fan of Quick's novels, I appreciated the courage behind this candid turn to memoir. Mental health struggles are a common theme in his fiction, and now we know why.
Quick writes movingly about being raised by a father who never knew how to show love, while also crediting the steady support of his wife and other men who stepped in as mentors. The chapters move between his childhood, his struggles with drinking, anxiety, and writer's block, his Jungian therapy sessions via Zoom, and his father's decline into dementia. This nonlinear structure works well, mirroring the way memory actually surfaces. He also delves into his father's childhood and the difficulties that shaped him.
What makes this memoir stand out is its unflinching honesty about his father's cruelty, his own struggles, and the long road toward healing. He battled through a lot as a result of his upbringing and found it in his heart to forgive and care for his father during his senior years.
Quick clearly hopes this book helps other men with fraught father relationships, but really, anyone from a difficult family will find something here. Poignant, honest, and deeply moving — highly recommended.
Thanks to Avid Reader Press and NetGalley for the advance copy.
Quick writes movingly about being raised by a father who never knew how to show love, while also crediting the steady support of his wife and other men who stepped in as mentors. The chapters move between his childhood, his struggles with drinking, anxiety, and writer's block, his Jungian therapy sessions via Zoom, and his father's decline into dementia. This nonlinear structure works well, mirroring the way memory actually surfaces. He also delves into his father's childhood and the difficulties that shaped him.
What makes this memoir stand out is its unflinching honesty about his father's cruelty, his own struggles, and the long road toward healing. He battled through a lot as a result of his upbringing and found it in his heart to forgive and care for his father during his senior years.
Quick clearly hopes this book helps other men with fraught father relationships, but really, anyone from a difficult family will find something here. Poignant, honest, and deeply moving — highly recommended.
Thanks to Avid Reader Press and NetGalley for the advance copy.
July 26, 2026
Matthew Quick's Dad, Love, Me is a profoundly honest and emotionally resonant memoir that explores grief, forgiveness, addiction, mental health, and the enduring complexity of the parent-child relationship. Written as a heartfelt letter to his father, the book captures the painful reality of growing up with emotional neglect while also revealing the extraordinary courage it takes to seek healing rather than resentment.
What makes this memoir so compelling is its remarkable vulnerability. Quick never simplifies the emotional landscape or offers easy answers. Instead, he invites readers into the difficult process of confronting childhood wounds, navigating recovery, and discovering that forgiveness is often an ongoing choice rather than a single moment. His reflections on creativity, therapy, sobriety, and family are deeply personal yet universally relatable.
The narrative balances heartbreak with hope, reminding readers that even the deepest scars can become places of compassion and growth. Quick's writing is thoughtful, authentic, and emotionally rich, making every chapter feel both intimate and impactful. This is far more than a memoir about loss. It is a moving testament to resilience, reconciliation, and the transformative power of choosing love in the face of pain. It is an unforgettable work that will resonate with anyone who has struggled with family, healing, or the search for peace.
What makes this memoir so compelling is its remarkable vulnerability. Quick never simplifies the emotional landscape or offers easy answers. Instead, he invites readers into the difficult process of confronting childhood wounds, navigating recovery, and discovering that forgiveness is often an ongoing choice rather than a single moment. His reflections on creativity, therapy, sobriety, and family are deeply personal yet universally relatable.
The narrative balances heartbreak with hope, reminding readers that even the deepest scars can become places of compassion and growth. Quick's writing is thoughtful, authentic, and emotionally rich, making every chapter feel both intimate and impactful. This is far more than a memoir about loss. It is a moving testament to resilience, reconciliation, and the transformative power of choosing love in the face of pain. It is an unforgettable work that will resonate with anyone who has struggled with family, healing, or the search for peace.
July 26, 2026
Matthew Quick’ has long been one of my fiction favorites. I subscribed to his Substack early on, and it taught me that he’s a man willing to look within, emote, and acknowledge life’s blemishes. It never feels like he’s varnishing a story, and that made me excited to read this memoir. After reading it, I’m full of admiration for him.
The retelling of particular moments in his paternal relationship hit me in the gut. So hard that at times tears were dripping before I realized that I was crying, or my breathing had tightened as if I were in the situation being retold. The gold here though isn’t in the naked honesty or gorgeous writing, but rather in the midlife remaking of his own story. As his father’s mind declines from dementia, Matthew Quick isn’t writing solely about what has been. Despite what has been, he and his wife relocate to be near his parents, and he gently cares for a father who’d been viciously cruel to him at each opportunity for decades. He seeks and commits to years of Jungian analysis to uncover what needs healing. There’s so much hope here, so much goodness.
I found this to be one of the most beautiful memoirs I’ve read. It inspires me to find ways to heal my own battered familial chains. There’s no one that wouldn’t benefit from reading this book.
The retelling of particular moments in his paternal relationship hit me in the gut. So hard that at times tears were dripping before I realized that I was crying, or my breathing had tightened as if I were in the situation being retold. The gold here though isn’t in the naked honesty or gorgeous writing, but rather in the midlife remaking of his own story. As his father’s mind declines from dementia, Matthew Quick isn’t writing solely about what has been. Despite what has been, he and his wife relocate to be near his parents, and he gently cares for a father who’d been viciously cruel to him at each opportunity for decades. He seeks and commits to years of Jungian analysis to uncover what needs healing. There’s so much hope here, so much goodness.
I found this to be one of the most beautiful memoirs I’ve read. It inspires me to find ways to heal my own battered familial chains. There’s no one that wouldn’t benefit from reading this book.
July 31, 2026
Matthew Quick is an author I really admire after loving The Silver Linings Playbook, so I was excited to read his memoir. Knowing how much heart and emotion he brings to his fiction, I was curious to see the real experiences that helped shape his writing.
This is an incredibly honest and vulnerable memoir. Quick doesn't try to make himself look perfect, and that's what makes the book so powerful. He writes openly about family, addiction, mental health, forgiveness, and the complicated relationship he had with his father. Some parts were difficult to read, but there are also moments of warmth and even humor that keep the book from feeling overwhelmingly heavy.
Looking back on The Silver Linings Playbook after reading this memoir, it's easy to see how much of Matthew Quick found its way into his fiction. It gave me an even greater appreciation for his work and made me want to reread The Silver Linings Playbook with a new perspective. This is a moving memoir about healing, forgiveness, and finding a way forward, even when the past never completely lets go.
This is an incredibly honest and vulnerable memoir. Quick doesn't try to make himself look perfect, and that's what makes the book so powerful. He writes openly about family, addiction, mental health, forgiveness, and the complicated relationship he had with his father. Some parts were difficult to read, but there are also moments of warmth and even humor that keep the book from feeling overwhelmingly heavy.
Looking back on The Silver Linings Playbook after reading this memoir, it's easy to see how much of Matthew Quick found its way into his fiction. It gave me an even greater appreciation for his work and made me want to reread The Silver Linings Playbook with a new perspective. This is a moving memoir about healing, forgiveness, and finding a way forward, even when the past never completely lets go.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Matthew Quick takes us into his life with no holds barred. This is a story of his life with a very abusive father that he never felt loved him. He tried all his growing up years to please him but it just never worked. H e wanted to write about it but just could not do it until his father developed dementia and he was tasked with the job of helping to take care of him He shares all his pain and hopes of a better final outcome. I was deeply involved in the story from the very beginning until the end. I strongly recommend this book to anyone raised in such a situation or has a parent with dementia. I applaud him for the courage and heartache that he endured and for being willing to share it with all of us.
I wish to thank Net Galley and Avid Reader Press and Simon & Schuster Publishers or allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed this advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
July 29, 2026
Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster | Avid Reader Press for gifting me a digital ARC of the memoir by Matthew Quick, author of The Silver Linings Playbook. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars rounded up!
Memoirs can be tricky, but Quick has nailed this one. I believe, just as he hoped, that it will have ripple effects on those who read it. After a traumatic childhood and a difficult relationship with his father, with a successful career, life should be good. But the one thing we can't run away from his ourselves. Quick tried alcohol, which numbed things, but didn't help. Once sober, he struggled with depression and writer's block. Then his dad's dementia diagnosis forced a whole new life and perspective. So many kudos to Quick and his wife, for stepping up in a major way when others would have just turned away, with good reason. This one will make you think that it's never too late to forgive and to repair relationships.
Memoirs can be tricky, but Quick has nailed this one. I believe, just as he hoped, that it will have ripple effects on those who read it. After a traumatic childhood and a difficult relationship with his father, with a successful career, life should be good. But the one thing we can't run away from his ourselves. Quick tried alcohol, which numbed things, but didn't help. Once sober, he struggled with depression and writer's block. Then his dad's dementia diagnosis forced a whole new life and perspective. So many kudos to Quick and his wife, for stepping up in a major way when others would have just turned away, with good reason. This one will make you think that it's never too late to forgive and to repair relationships.
August 2, 2026
I think that I’ve often commented on my observation that anyone and everyone seems to be writing memoirs these days and I find many of them to be just boring accounts of common experiences; often more like journaling to process feelings. After reading this memoir by Matthew Quick, I recognize why his is so different, at least to me. I have really loved the previous books by him that I have read and this memoir reflects his talent and creativity and that’s what makes it different and special. The format of writing directly to his father to tell stories from his past, describe his psychotherapy sessions and struggles with alcohol and to relate his coming to terms with his father’s past abuse and current advancing dementia demonstrates the author’s writing abilities and the creativity that I have enjoyed in his previous work. He mentions towards the end of the book that he told his therapist that he wants his memoir to help others with the same struggles and while I think that it will serve that purpose for some readers, it is also a great story that anyone will enjoy.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Quick's memoir is riveting. Any reader will quickly sink into the memories and experiences due to the author's masterful writing and style. Yet, those (the many of us) who carry the family and parent-based trauma with us into our 40's and 50's will particularly resonate with this memoir. It's like walking alongside the author with your "rememberings" as well as his. Learning to love is most difficult for those who've not felt parental love or who struggle to find resilience after many rounds of abuse. Quick takes us into the quicksand of despair and aggression, then offers a hoist out of the murkiness as he shares insights of his therapy, support from his family members, and his creative pursuits.
Offering his best writing yet, this memoir is one to savor....one that takes us into the deep journey and the benefits of learning to love.
Offering his best writing yet, this memoir is one to savor....one that takes us into the deep journey and the benefits of learning to love.
July 29, 2026
4.5 Stars
In 𝗗𝗮𝗱, 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲, 𝗠𝗲, the brilliant writer behind 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘪𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 has written writes a powerful memoir about his very difficult relationship with his father, who now suffers from dementia.
Matthew Quick has courageously stripped away his public success story to expose a raw and deeply moving battle with depression, addiction, and paternal rejection.
This beautifully brave memoir chronicles a race against time, as Quick confronts his past through therapy, and seeks a reconciliation with his declining father.
This sounds like it would be very dark, but I found it to be life-affirming. Ultimately, it offers a hopeful roadmap for anyone learning to forgive and love through deep emotional wounds. The audiobook is narrated by the author himself who did a wonderful job.
In 𝗗𝗮𝗱, 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲, 𝗠𝗲, the brilliant writer behind 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘪𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 has written writes a powerful memoir about his very difficult relationship with his father, who now suffers from dementia.
Matthew Quick has courageously stripped away his public success story to expose a raw and deeply moving battle with depression, addiction, and paternal rejection.
This beautifully brave memoir chronicles a race against time, as Quick confronts his past through therapy, and seeks a reconciliation with his declining father.
This sounds like it would be very dark, but I found it to be life-affirming. Ultimately, it offers a hopeful roadmap for anyone learning to forgive and love through deep emotional wounds. The audiobook is narrated by the author himself who did a wonderful job.
Read
May 18, 2026Thanks to Simon & Schuster and author Matthew Quick for the personalized advanced copy of this gut-punching memoir. Quick's relationship with his father has been fraught from childhood. Now that dementia has altered his father's brain, their relationship has improved. The memoir is written as a long letter in which Matthew tells his dad how their relationship has affected, mostly negatively, Matthew's life. He isn't whiny - just matter of fact. Quick demonstrates that therapy, with the right therapist, can be a beautiful thing, that a long-term, loving partnership can be life-saving, that generational trauma caused by war is very real and that love and forgiveness are also very real. Great memoir.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
Some books I read quickly, and I fly through the pages, in hurry to find out what's next. Then there are books like "Dad, Love, Me" by Matthew Quick where it's better for me to read slowly, and absorb what the author is not writing but to feel the emotion behind every.single.word. Author Quick is best know for writing the book "The Silver Linings Playbook" and with this memoir he writes about his traumatic childhood and his often chaotic relationship with his dad. Jungian analysis with a therapist helps Quick reconcile his feelings but it's not easy and is a bit of a wild ride. Just like Quick's life.
* I read an advance copy and was not compensated.
* I read an advance copy and was not compensated.
July 29, 2026
The author states a couple of times in the book that he hopes his story will help other men to heal from their complicated relationships with their fathers, but it will resonate with anyone who has had a traumatic past as a child with a trusted adult, and who now finds themselves to be caregiver for the person who harmed them. His experience, alternating chapters with past and present, captures, not only the mental hurdles with finding yourself in a position to have to care for someone who has done harm, but he also finds the beauty and reconciliation in discovering the other’s past, providing service with grace, and meeting people where they are. Bittersweet and beautifully written.
Review of advance copy received from Author
At some point early in the book, I felt like I’d ripped my heart out and was using it as a bookmark. I’ve always loved Matthew Quick’s novels, but this one, his first memoir, feels especially personal and vulnerable. With each chapter, I found myself becoming more introspective about my own life—my past, my relationships, and the baggage I carry with me.
My mother has dementia, and my "father wound" runs deep, so this memoir hit me hard. At the same time, it opened the door to some much-needed healing and contemplation.
This book is medicinal.
My mother has dementia, and my "father wound" runs deep, so this memoir hit me hard. At the same time, it opened the door to some much-needed healing and contemplation.
This book is medicinal.
July 21, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
This book tugged on all my heartstrings. I felt for Quick and all the psychological and emotional trauma he'd endured, as well as all the work he's been doing to understand and undo said trauma. I appreciated the honesty with which Quick told his story, including admitting his own shortcomings. I was moved to tears more than once and am hopeful telling his story has also helped him heal.
This book tugged on all my heartstrings. I felt for Quick and all the psychological and emotional trauma he'd endured, as well as all the work he's been doing to understand and undo said trauma. I appreciated the honesty with which Quick told his story, including admitting his own shortcomings. I was moved to tears more than once and am hopeful telling his story has also helped him heal.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thanks to NetGallery for the advanced copy.
What parents do to their kids sometimes and especially what men do to their sons to emotionally cripple them...I often thought of Bruce Springsteen's book as I read this, as his father too suffered from mental illness as it is clear MQ's father did have mental illness long before his dementia. Thankfully, Matthew seems to be doing the things he needs to heal. I might question Jungian therapy, but hey it worked for him.
What parents do to their kids sometimes and especially what men do to their sons to emotionally cripple them...I often thought of Bruce Springsteen's book as I read this, as his father too suffered from mental illness as it is clear MQ's father did have mental illness long before his dementia. Thankfully, Matthew seems to be doing the things he needs to heal. I might question Jungian therapy, but hey it worked for him.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is a powerful book! I've read a lot of books written about people going to therapy but I think this is the first I've read about going to a Jungian analyst. There are heartbreaking moments about his dad's abuse and why Quick's father is the way he is but eyeopener to a son who still craves his father's love and approval.
This is a powerful book! I've read a lot of books written about people going to therapy but I think this is the first I've read about going to a Jungian analyst. There are heartbreaking moments about his dad's abuse and why Quick's father is the way he is but eyeopener to a son who still craves his father's love and approval.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this memoir.
I have never read anything by this author and only know him from seeing Silver Linings Playbook when it first came out. If I was more familiar with his work, I may have felt more bonded to this memoir. That said, his vulnerability and openness was truly inspiring and beautiful. He suffered horrific behavior and still was able to make amends. I am leaving this memoir with hope for what I can let go in my own life.
I have never read anything by this author and only know him from seeing Silver Linings Playbook when it first came out. If I was more familiar with his work, I may have felt more bonded to this memoir. That said, his vulnerability and openness was truly inspiring and beautiful. He suffered horrific behavior and still was able to make amends. I am leaving this memoir with hope for what I can let go in my own life.
July 28, 2026
There were many parts of this book that were beautiful. Quick is a fabulous writer. But for me, the structure of writing the memoir to his father and the abundance of talk about "the memoir" detracted from it. Toward the end, the analyst talks about Quick needing to write this book to heal himself. And I hope it did that. For all of us who have had a parent(s) who were horrible, many passages will hit home.
August 3, 2026
Heartbreaking, honest, and highly recommended memoir about his troubled relationship with his father, Mike, who now suffers from dementia. It is honestly hard to read sometimes. This story becomes emotionally overwhelming for me, that's why I give 3 stars.
As a longtime fan of Quick's novels, I appreciated the courage behind this candid turn to memoir. Mental health struggles are a common theme in his fiction, and now we know why.
As a longtime fan of Quick's novels, I appreciated the courage behind this candid turn to memoir. Mental health struggles are a common theme in his fiction, and now we know why.
August 4, 2026
This was the read I needed right now. It'd been too long since I was able to immerse myself in a story and Quick knows how to draw a reader in. Attended his reading and there was a woman there, an avid reader, who'd finished his book that morning and with how she gushed over the story I needed to read it. Great set up for the opening, solid structure in the form of a letter to his father who has dementia as he seeks understanding and, ultimately, self-healing.
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