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About the House
The Slate family’s rambling colonial house just outside of Boston may be haunted, but it’s definitely full of surprises. Kitchen and bedrooms, yard and garden – all trigger memories from brilliant actress and comedian Jenny Slate and her father, renowned poet and essayist Ron Slate. In About the House, the Slates share their family stories, memories, quirks, and confessions in a singular collection of stories, essays, and poems that range from profound to profane.
185 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2016
10 people are currently reading
2814 people want to read
About the author
Jenny Slate
9 books1,730 followersJenny Sarah Slate is an American actress, stand-up comedian, and author best known as the creator of the Marcel the Shell With Shoes On short films, which was also spun off into a children's book. She is also known for her season as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2009 to 2010, as well as for her recurring roles on House of Lies, Parks and Recreation, Bob's Burgers, and Kroll Show. She most recently starred in the 2014 Sundance film Obvious Child, and currently co-stars in the FX comedy series Married.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
February 6, 2017
when reading feels like coming home
July 18, 2020
this was a really good literally-just-graduated read. Jenny Slate's essays about her childhood bedroom hit me different because my parents just moved out of my teenhood home and I've been slowly greiving that part of my life. I didn't altogether care for her father's writing and often skipped to Jenny but frankly I do not often enjoy the writing of men. I recommend this beautiful and poignant and strange book.
February 21, 2017
I was already in love with Jenny Slate, but reading this book I got to see a new side of her which was fantastic. Her father, Ron Slate, is a great writer and poet that had some fun and interesting stories about the house.
June 19, 2022
Picked up this book for the comfort and whim Slate offered in Little Weirds, and left feeling cracked open in a way I could not have anticipated. Having grown up only about 30 minutes from the Slate home, I saw pieces of my own childhood come alive in the pages. Slate is a master of writing from a place of familiarity. Yes, my proximity to her hometown eased my interpretation of this book, but I undoubtedly believe any reader could find themselves in it too. Slate’s father’s writing is just as impressive and it’s endearing how well their writing complements one another. It felt like I was drinking tea in their living room and listening to them go back and forth of their individual recollections of their beloved home. This book is so nostalgic and charming, and made me want to walk the halls of my own childhood home and breathe them in again.
February 18, 2019
Rarely does a book knock you down with both simplicity AND depth. “About the House” is a book co-written (in roughly alternating sections) by a father and daughter, who use their family home as a springboard for explorations of their relationship and themselves. It’s a simple, direct metaphor, an obvious carrying case for tales of raising wild children, of being raised by overwhelmed adults… but the execution is so weirdly sublime, it makes you wonder why you’ve never seen it this side of Ibsen. Jenny and Ron Slate are the perfect pairing, a human Venn diagram of music, poetry, art, food, literature, nature, comedy, theater, film, and animation, slowly assembling that overlapping, ineffable center hinted at by every art form. Like all good writing, the book begins with the exploration of a singular item, and ends up being about everything.
Also, did I mention it’s really fucking funny?
Through the course of heartbreaking and hysterical essays, the Slate home (built by a first cousin of Georgia O’Keeffe, weirdly) slowly reveals its secrets, its hopes, its heartaches, and its ghosts. Considered separately, the chapters are wonderful, aspirational vignettes, but as a whole, the book really hits the stratosphere. Both intentionally and unintentionally, it gradually gives a holistic sense of how one generation evolves and mutates into the next, how childhood dreams become broken and restored - a living, breathing example of kintsugi – and how even the clearest, most singular events always, always have multiple interpretations. Through renovations and marriages, deaths and divorces, the pulsing heart of the Slate home anchors one of the more (you come to realize) functional families around. It’s difficult not to envy both the wildness and earnestness of the Slates, and equally difficult not to be grateful for their honesty. Good books, to me, are the ones that make you feel less alone with your particular brand of weirdness, the ones that put forth a more cogent, funnier version of your own brain. (Imagine a David Sedaris collection stripped of its irony, while retaining all the sharp comedy crystals and stacks of metaphoric meaning.)
While Ron’s poetry and essays are precise, evocative, and excellent (“The 35th Birthday Party” is a standout), Jenny does some remarkably heavy lifting, somehow quite clearly explaining the mind and motivations of her child self, while connecting it to the woman she has become. There are buckets of underline-able quotes here, but get a look at this piece of writing (“Doo-Da Wog” is a character she invented and played as a child):
“I was talking to my dad on the telephone one day while I was wandering through the historic squares of old Savannah and he said to me, If you’re interested in the process of becoming yourself, you’re going to be doing that until the day you die. And I thought, I am interested in it. I’m not just participating in it because I live, but I am interested in the process. The process is highlighted by the games that I play within. I have patterns that help me define myself. I am Doo-Da Wog and I live under the dogwood tree, and I feel the real feelings of putting myself on the line for someone I love. I am Jenny Slate in school, and I can’t seem to understand things like compasses and clocks because they are not connected in any way to my emotional makeup and therefore they are hardly even anything to me. I don’t want to deal with them because I don’t need to use them the way others do. I’m not supposed to learn how to use the clock. I’m supposed to learn how to go through the day and be brave enough to ask someone what time it is. That’s the skill I need because I am lonely and I am actually shy and I need to push through so that I can keep the process going, the process of becoming myself.”
Jeeeebus Christ, you guys. Somehow, the entire book is imbued with this incredible sense of becoming, of both being wholly content with who you are, and constantly striving to be bigger, better, more. This is the story of fatherhood and childhood, of growing and evolving, of hoping that every day is better than the last, of wishing that you as an adult is somehow more complete and expansive than you as a tiny childhood seed, of dreaming that your children will become the best parts of you, with the fears and scars somehow excised.
And, seriously, it’s fucking funnnnnny.
A last note about the publisher: Concord Free Press (www.concordfreepress.com) gives away their books for free, requesting donations to “a local charity, someone who needs it, or a stranger on the street” as payment. So, if you love this book as much as I did, it might quickly become the most expensive book you’ve ever purchased… and you’ll be stoked about it.
Also, did I mention it’s really fucking funny?
Through the course of heartbreaking and hysterical essays, the Slate home (built by a first cousin of Georgia O’Keeffe, weirdly) slowly reveals its secrets, its hopes, its heartaches, and its ghosts. Considered separately, the chapters are wonderful, aspirational vignettes, but as a whole, the book really hits the stratosphere. Both intentionally and unintentionally, it gradually gives a holistic sense of how one generation evolves and mutates into the next, how childhood dreams become broken and restored - a living, breathing example of kintsugi – and how even the clearest, most singular events always, always have multiple interpretations. Through renovations and marriages, deaths and divorces, the pulsing heart of the Slate home anchors one of the more (you come to realize) functional families around. It’s difficult not to envy both the wildness and earnestness of the Slates, and equally difficult not to be grateful for their honesty. Good books, to me, are the ones that make you feel less alone with your particular brand of weirdness, the ones that put forth a more cogent, funnier version of your own brain. (Imagine a David Sedaris collection stripped of its irony, while retaining all the sharp comedy crystals and stacks of metaphoric meaning.)
While Ron’s poetry and essays are precise, evocative, and excellent (“The 35th Birthday Party” is a standout), Jenny does some remarkably heavy lifting, somehow quite clearly explaining the mind and motivations of her child self, while connecting it to the woman she has become. There are buckets of underline-able quotes here, but get a look at this piece of writing (“Doo-Da Wog” is a character she invented and played as a child):
“I was talking to my dad on the telephone one day while I was wandering through the historic squares of old Savannah and he said to me, If you’re interested in the process of becoming yourself, you’re going to be doing that until the day you die. And I thought, I am interested in it. I’m not just participating in it because I live, but I am interested in the process. The process is highlighted by the games that I play within. I have patterns that help me define myself. I am Doo-Da Wog and I live under the dogwood tree, and I feel the real feelings of putting myself on the line for someone I love. I am Jenny Slate in school, and I can’t seem to understand things like compasses and clocks because they are not connected in any way to my emotional makeup and therefore they are hardly even anything to me. I don’t want to deal with them because I don’t need to use them the way others do. I’m not supposed to learn how to use the clock. I’m supposed to learn how to go through the day and be brave enough to ask someone what time it is. That’s the skill I need because I am lonely and I am actually shy and I need to push through so that I can keep the process going, the process of becoming myself.”
Jeeeebus Christ, you guys. Somehow, the entire book is imbued with this incredible sense of becoming, of both being wholly content with who you are, and constantly striving to be bigger, better, more. This is the story of fatherhood and childhood, of growing and evolving, of hoping that every day is better than the last, of wishing that you as an adult is somehow more complete and expansive than you as a tiny childhood seed, of dreaming that your children will become the best parts of you, with the fears and scars somehow excised.
And, seriously, it’s fucking funnnnnny.
A last note about the publisher: Concord Free Press (www.concordfreepress.com) gives away their books for free, requesting donations to “a local charity, someone who needs it, or a stranger on the street” as payment. So, if you love this book as much as I did, it might quickly become the most expensive book you’ve ever purchased… and you’ll be stoked about it.
November 7, 2019
I'm going to see jenny on her little weirds tour and wanted to read this before the event. I listened to her interview with sam jones so I knew that, on some level, this book was going to affect me. It did. When reading I just kept thinking if I had had this book when I lost my childhood home, would I break or would I find solace? It brought back so many memories that I thought I had lost, and then at the same time, it gave me peace knowing that even if I could no longer make memories in that home, that someone else surely will. That it is still loved even when I am not the one loving it.
This book was wonderful vignettes of a house well lived in, of a house well-loved, and the wild family that lived within it.
This book was wonderful vignettes of a house well lived in, of a house well-loved, and the wild family that lived within it.
August 4, 2018
Jenny writes about rebuilding and hibernating and nostalgia and how she "was mislead or misused by the same people who celebrated me." I cried and cried and cried while I was also slowing rebuilding myself along with her.
"It's fine to not nurture every creature in your personal space. Its fine to have a time with something and then pass it on."
"Out in the world, the part of myself that has been asking to be let out and accepted, the adult actress that lived inside my child self, has sprung into being. She changed places with the child, who has now made a tiny little bedroom in my heart. She lives there. She has her own little phone line and it calls my brain and I always pick up."
"It's fine to not nurture every creature in your personal space. Its fine to have a time with something and then pass it on."
"Out in the world, the part of myself that has been asking to be let out and accepted, the adult actress that lived inside my child self, has sprung into being. She changed places with the child, who has now made a tiny little bedroom in my heart. She lives there. She has her own little phone line and it calls my brain and I always pick up."
September 7, 2023
I just love every single thing Jenny Slate does. If she wrote a diary and published it on the internet I’d read it everyday. Her writing is a warm hug for my present, past, and future heart.
Extremely cool that this book is free and the meaning behind that (though I paid for it on a thrift website, ha!). So special. Sad it’s over.
Extremely cool that this book is free and the meaning behind that (though I paid for it on a thrift website, ha!). So special. Sad it’s over.
April 6, 2024
Jenny Slate is a wonderful writer—observant, insightful, and able to do cartwheels with words. I enjoyed reading her memory of a baby dream (or early out-of-body experience), about summer afternoons and ghosts and how the dining room holds “the natural history of our family.” I wasn’t nearly as entranced by Ron Slate’s more blunt contributions. I admit my opinion may be colored by the tales of him bludgeoning bats and whacking a little dog across the room. Nonetheless, this book centered on a family home is an interesting intergenerational project.
March 6, 2018
And her father, Ron Slate alternate chapters about their family home in Milton, Massachusetts. You can't buy this book. It is a freebie from the Concord Free Press. You read it, and then give money to an organization or person in need, then pass it on. Great book, great concept.
March 22, 2019
I like Jenny slate. The book is unique. It could have used more substance. I liked her excerpts more than Ron Slate. I felt through the book I got to know her better. The book rambles a bit but allows readers to view their home or wherever they grew up in a new lens.
March 7, 2024
nobody writes like jenny slate, but it’s clear she got some of her talent from her father. this was a wonderful little collection of essays about their family home in new england that reads like a conversation with an old friend
July 28, 2024
I read Jenny Slate’s Little Weirds and it is one of my favorite books. Discovered this book, which precedes Little Weirds, and it’s just as delightful! I love Jenny and her father’s poetic use of language.
August 4, 2019
Very lovely book. Very lovely premise, both content-wise and publishing-wise. I got the book years ago and it took me super long to get her through, but I finished it and will pass it along soon.
February 23, 2020
A warm hug in book form.
May 7, 2022
I found this book sweet, charming and such a quick, engaging read. Love how a home and rooms within a home can hold so many stories.
December 31, 2023
A beautiful tapestry of moments woven together by Jenny and Ron Slate. I cried many times reading this.
June 28, 2025
3.5 — A tender father-daughter project that feels like a duet. Two independent voices & worlds, shared under one roof & book. 🖤
June 30, 2025
I enjoyed this weird little collection of essays and poems from Jenny Slate and her father, Ron. There is something magical about growing up in a quirky old house.
January 28, 2024
I fell in love with Jenny Slate’s writing in 2019 with Little Weirds, and have been desperate for more ever since. I was searching online for any information about an upcoming new release, when I was shocked to come across the existence of this little gem that she wrote with her father in 2016. It is described as stories of their family home — an old haunted house filled with memories. However, in the typical Jenny style that is now easy to see was inherited from her father, the book takes detours into introspection, whimsy, daydreams, and reflective wisdom. Jenny’s precocious tone, mixed with the contributions of her father’s profundity, make for a combination of writing that is irresistible. I enjoyed every chapter, and only wished that it could have been longer. An absolutely perfect one sitting read that I would highly recommend!
Favorite quotes:
“I retreat back to the old ghostly house in Milton, hoping to become myself again, and to have one more chance, just one more chance to share my heart, and to share it successfully enough that, if I become a ghost one day, there's at least another ghost right beside me. And I have its heart and it has mine, and we had the world together. This is what I believe can happen to me. I don't know if I believe in ghosts, but I believe that this can happen to me.”
“I was talking to my dad on the telephone one day while I was wandering through the historic squares of old Savannah and he said to me, If you're interested in the process of becoming yourself, you're going to be doing that until the day you die. And I thought, I am interested in it.”
“I turn on the radio and I hear the news about the world because I believe and always have believed that the cruelest death of experience while living is the death of learning. The learning process, in whatever form, must be kept in bloom, fragrant, interesting. It is the garden that I tend the most. I weed out the thoughts that eat the roots of the thoughts that are planted on purpose. If you are in the world then do please be in it. I don't even need to say this to myself, it's in my very heartbeat.”
“I know, in the giant library of memories that is in my brain, that maybe there was a moment when I thought I was placing my eggs in one basket, taking a huge risk with my heart, and that maybe I walked into some traps and I was misled or misused by the same people who celebrated me, but that I had to live and I had to taste tastes and be touched and that a broken heart keeps beating and that resilience is really what I have always loved about myself, because I both feel it happening and am curious about its occurrence every time.”
Favorite quotes:
“I retreat back to the old ghostly house in Milton, hoping to become myself again, and to have one more chance, just one more chance to share my heart, and to share it successfully enough that, if I become a ghost one day, there's at least another ghost right beside me. And I have its heart and it has mine, and we had the world together. This is what I believe can happen to me. I don't know if I believe in ghosts, but I believe that this can happen to me.”
“I was talking to my dad on the telephone one day while I was wandering through the historic squares of old Savannah and he said to me, If you're interested in the process of becoming yourself, you're going to be doing that until the day you die. And I thought, I am interested in it.”
“I turn on the radio and I hear the news about the world because I believe and always have believed that the cruelest death of experience while living is the death of learning. The learning process, in whatever form, must be kept in bloom, fragrant, interesting. It is the garden that I tend the most. I weed out the thoughts that eat the roots of the thoughts that are planted on purpose. If you are in the world then do please be in it. I don't even need to say this to myself, it's in my very heartbeat.”
“I know, in the giant library of memories that is in my brain, that maybe there was a moment when I thought I was placing my eggs in one basket, taking a huge risk with my heart, and that maybe I walked into some traps and I was misled or misused by the same people who celebrated me, but that I had to live and I had to taste tastes and be touched and that a broken heart keeps beating and that resilience is really what I have always loved about myself, because I both feel it happening and am curious about its occurrence every time.”
March 4, 2017
"I hear she's some sort of yoga teacher now and the idea that she's telling people how to be peaceful while not offering the disclaimer that she caused deep, acid-like suffering makes me want to rip a roof off a house."
This is a cute book about a lot of things.
I enjoyed Jenny Slate's sections more than I expected and I appreciate that this book has little stories and anecdotes about growing up as well as some memories. While I wasn't blown away with this book it does transport you to some times and places in Massachusetts in the Slate's lives.
I also really love the free book concept! It's such a great idea and I'll definitely be passing this on to someone else.
This is a cute book about a lot of things.
I enjoyed Jenny Slate's sections more than I expected and I appreciate that this book has little stories and anecdotes about growing up as well as some memories. While I wasn't blown away with this book it does transport you to some times and places in Massachusetts in the Slate's lives.
I also really love the free book concept! It's such a great idea and I'll definitely be passing this on to someone else.
February 9, 2017
I loved everything about the experience of reading this book. Concord Press sends books out for free. When you receive a book from them, you agree to donate money to an organization or individual, report the donation to their site, and pass the book along to someone else (who should also make a donation and pass the book on - there's even a page for reader signatures). I think there were only 3,000 copies printed. Knowing I am not likely to ever read this book again made me cherish the experience of reading it even more. I read slowly, with thought, and reread parts that spoke to me most.
I deeply loved this book. Jenny Slate and Ron Slate wrote about their life experiences with specificity and sensitivity, and I feel like I gained perspective and wisdom from spending time with their words. They are kind and smart and self-aware in the loveliest ways. If this book ever crosses my path again, I will happily give it another careful read. I am so thankful for the chance to spend time with About the House.
I deeply loved this book. Jenny Slate and Ron Slate wrote about their life experiences with specificity and sensitivity, and I feel like I gained perspective and wisdom from spending time with their words. They are kind and smart and self-aware in the loveliest ways. If this book ever crosses my path again, I will happily give it another careful read. I am so thankful for the chance to spend time with About the House.
December 5, 2016
This joint memoir provides two different generational perspectives on life in the family home. Both the father and daughter share memories and stories, centered around the house in which they lived as the daughter was growing up. This memoir doesn't disclose any huge traumas or massive drama, but instead reflects this family's perspectives on everyday life in their home. In some ways, this means that the book isn't particularly compelling, but the stories are well written, and they do paint a vivid portrait of this family and their lives.
If it wasn't for the Concord Free Press model of giving books away to readers who agree to donate to the cause of their choice, I doubt I would have sought out and read this book. It wasn't disappointing, exactly, but it isn't exactly my kind of book.
If it wasn't for the Concord Free Press model of giving books away to readers who agree to donate to the cause of their choice, I doubt I would have sought out and read this book. It wasn't disappointing, exactly, but it isn't exactly my kind of book.
February 10, 2017
Beautiful, sad, joyous, and full of life.
February 4, 2017
I love this family. When she spoke of Grandma Connie I could hear her voice.
March 4, 2017
Completely special.
February 17, 2020
So very lovely. An absolute delight.
Want to read
July 27, 2019Sooooooooo I just really want to read this book, and now the only place I can find it is on amazon for like $30.. anybody have a cheaper copy for me?! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews