Drinking Closer to Home

by Jessica Anya Blau

Blau's second novel (after The Summer of Naked Swim Parties) revolves around a family in crisis after a mother's debilitating heart attack.

The troubled adult children of Buzzy and Louise come home to visit their parents on their hippie ranch in Santa Barbara, Cal., "where the days are so sunny you'd swear a nuclear reactor had exploded." Sisters Anna and Portia, and brother Emery, recall the events that led them to their restless present. Emery and his partner, Alejandro, tip-toe around the topic of asking a sister to donate eggs so that they can have a child. During their week-long visit everyone must deal with uncomfortable details about their parents' personal lives, as well as the ghosts of the people they once were, wishing that they could leave their childhood wounds behind once and for all.

Blau writes funny, often heartbreaking, and always relatable anecdotes. She aptly describes the family visiting Louise in the hospital: "every day, a moment comes when someone can no longer take sitting in the beeping, stinking room." Blau's lifelike characters are such a joy to get to know that one feels sorry to leave them behind.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Book Club, Novels, Adult Fiction, Humor, Summer

337 pages, Paperback

First published December 29, 2010

About the author

Jessica Anya Blau is the author of the nationally bestselling novel The Summer of Naked Swim Parties and the critically acclaimed Drinking Closer to Home.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Marriage isn't a charming little tete-a-tete between a couple in love. It's an arrangement in a tiny unified country of two citizens, with a constitution that is in constant negotiation." -- the thoughts of the oldest sibling Anna, on page 273

Ms. Blau's Drinking Closer to Home (the unusual title originates from a piece of advice given by a maternal grandfather, in recalling a spectacular moment of particularly bad parenting during his much younger days) is a blunt family drama about a rather blunt family. These folks - and I don't think their surname is ever mentioned - are a quintet transplanted from Ann Arbor, Michigan to sunny coastal Santa Barbara, California, and the leapfrogging timeline covers 1968 to 1993.

Attorney 'Buzzy' and his housewife/artist wife Louise have three children - the headstrong Anna, the sensitive Portia, and the watchful Emery - but I deliberately don't say that they 'raise' them as Louise announces early on in their childhood that she is simply done being a full-time mother (and Buzzy is away long hours at his work), so for better and worse the kids sort of learn to raise themselves in the carefree early 70's. The overall framing device involves the three now-adult siblings returning home for a visit after their mother has suffered a serious heart attack. This is not a dysfunctional family so much as one with so much emotional baggage that they would require a fleet of moving vans. Author Blau, as usual, does some tricky work here - these were not especially likable characters, but once we arrive at the finale it is apparent how the family ties have made these folks stronger, if not exactly better, people. There is a fair amount of dark and/or off-color humor, some anger-inducing dramatic moments (the aforementioned maternal grandfather non-jokingly addressing one of the grandkids as 'dummy' and another as 'sissy' in regards to their respective intelligence and sexual orientation . . . and they are just young children at the time), and more casually lax moral attitudes - copious drug use, several extramarital affairs, etc. - than you can shake a disapproving finger at in a mainstream novel. It may not be a pleasant story, but it seemed like a very well-written one.

[John Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was a trip, Mary Jane on acid, a weirder family than The Family Fang. Sometimes very funny, sometimes very weird, sometimes just plain rude.

Buzzy and Louise are the parents of three very different children, Anna, Portia and Emery. The story jumps around a bit from the 'present' with their mother recovering from a heart attack, to their strange and diverse childhoods. Stinkies everywhere (to the uninitiated a stinky is an affair), drugs, sex and enough shennanigans to satisfy anyone feeling their life is lacking.

Not for everyone for sure, but entertaining at 3.5 stars.

[Staci · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, this will be a short and sweet (maybe not) review...reason being...I just did not care for this book. I found the parents to be narcissistic, neglectful, and frankly, they pissed me off with their behavior. I tried to lighten up and just enjoy this read, but I couldn't. My favorite character and the one that I felt a lot of sympathy for was Emery. He was basically raised by his sisters and really just went about his life. I loved watching him grow into a responsible and loving adult. I will admit to laughing a few times throughout the story, but I guess because I work in a school and see neglect firsthand, I just couldn't accept the almost blatant disregard the parents had for their children and enjoy myself. Others absolutely LOVED this book and found it funny and readable. I found it funny at times, but a painful funny. With all of that being said, I respect the work that the author put into her story and just because it wasn't my cup of tea doesn't mean that you wouldn't enjoy it!


Rating: 2.75/5


** Please do yourself a favor and visit the other blogs that are hosting this book. I'm sure you will find many different responses to Drinking Closer to Home.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

From author

Taste is a funny thing. My taste in novels, for those of you who may not know, tends to run a bit left of centre. I prefer burying myself nose-deep in bizarro, drug-induced, run-on sentenced, experimental fiction. Or inhaling amazing "fly so low under the radar that there is no radar low enough to fly under" indie fiction. Very rarely do I indulge in what I like to call straight-laced, main stream "your mom could totally read this book" fiction.

And yet, when I do indulge in it, more often than not, I find myself thoroughly enjoying it. Of course, it certainly helps when said main stream fiction contains some one of the most dysfunctional cast of characters I have read about in a long, long time.

You've heard of escapism fiction, yes? Books that are marketed as "beach reads" that require no thinking whatsoever and promise to magically whisk you away from your stressful, hectic, crazy life?

Well, Jessica Anya Blau's novel is the complete opposite! Drinking Closer to Home is the type of book you read when you want to escape your boring hum-drum life to be magically whisked into a world where everyone is having affairs, and is addicted to drugs, sex, and drinking. Where your grandparents humiliate you by showing off your soiled underwear, inviting their friends to check out your "tits" and announcing that you are so dumb you had to attend dummy school. Or a world where your parents grow pot in the backyard, and treat your sisters bouts of bulimia and anorexia like they were passing fads. Where your stay at home mother announces that she quits being a mom and teaches you how to care for your siblings, cook, clean, and do laundry. Or where everyone around you appears to have a "Stinky" (family nickname for the people your family members are having an affair with), while your husband has left you for a stinky of his own.

It's the story of going home again and all of the unexpected baggage that brings. It's about coming together as a family and accepting one another, when everything you've put behind you is attempting to bubble back up to the surface.

Doesn't sound like your typical straight-laced, main stream fiction novel, now, does it?

I want to thank author Greg Olear for initially pointing this novel out to me, and to Jessica for reaching out to me and making a copy available for review. I promise that their kindness did not influence my positive review.

Take a peek at the book trailer for Drinking Closer to Home, which I posted on the blog yesterday. And be sure to grab yourself a copy the next time you hit the bookstore. If for nothing else, do it for the dysfunction!

http://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.c...

[Heather Donald · Rating 1 out of 5]

After reading Glass Castle, Drinking Closer to Home just didn't do it for me. I thought the characters were mean. I thought the author was trying too hard to shock the reader. I found the excessive use of curse words annoying (and trust me, I love to curse!).

Although, the one saving grace for the book was on the second to last page: "Portia is surprised that she has not faded and evaporated with the loss of her mother...She understands suddenly that the stuff that fills her up is not the love or attention she might get from other people; it is the love she herself has for other people. We are, Portia decides, the people we love."

Having buried my mother, I feel that way too. I am surprised every day that I didn't fade and evaporate and I do believe that we are the people we love. So, would I read it again? No. Would I recommend it? No, read Glass Castle instead. Am I glad I read it? Yes, if only for that one paragraph.

[Sara Strand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before I get into the review, I will tell you- I loved this book. I loved it because I could relate to it. I think most people would agree that most families are quirky and weird and no family is like the other. My family is just me, my brother, my mom, and my step dad. And I remember growing up knowing my parents were not like the other parents and I remembered thinking how weird they were. My parent's didn't volunteer, they didn't cart me and my friends around wherever we wanted to go, they treated us like mini adults in a sense but laid down the law. We didn't have the deep family discussions- you only came to them if you had a problem and if it wasn't major you figured it out on your own. My brother and I are similar but way different. I'm very nose-in-a-book and studious, sarcastic and giving. He's very athletic, funny, and kind hearted. We get along great and I go to my brother when I have a problem before I go to my mom sometimes. We were raised with the mentality that no matter what- love your sibling because someday it'll be all we have.

So I related to this book in that sense, but also the sense that eventually- your parents will pass away. With my dad's heart attack this year it drove that point home to us- either one of them could go any day. And it brings up childhood memories and you think about the things you'd miss when they leave.

The parents in this book remind me of my own in a way and I loved it. Some of the things they say are things my mom and dad would say. The conversations the siblings had are conversations like I've had with my own brother. It felt like this is the story of what would happen if one of my parents were maybe dying in a hospital.

I loved how you got a glimpse into the childhood of each child and then their present day life. I loved how the author tied it all together before she presented the "secrets" part of it and how it would maybe shape the future of the family. I can't tell you how I felt about the ending without giving it away but when I read it I thought, "yeah... I kind of knew it'd end like this" because in retrospect- the book is written after the ending event. So it makes sense on how it was written now that I know how it ended. That means nothing to you but it's a thought I had afterwards.

What I also admired about this book is how it really drives home the point that so often people say their childhood is the excuse for why they do things, often destructive things, as an adult. And really? It's not an excuse. As an adult you learn how to look at something and say, "Well- that's how they did it, that's how they thought.. but I can and will do better." Just because your parents think a certain way, or do something a certain way, it doesn't mean it's the right way. And as adults you have to figure that out and how to rise above it- how to be a better person.

I highly recommend this book for anybody who's facing the reality that eventually.. your parents will pass away. Anyone who has had a hard time at reconciling their childhood and just saying, "It's ok. No matter what it was... it's in the past and it doesn't shape who I am today." It's a good book and there were parts where I really laughed out loud and some parts that reminded me of a favorite childhood memory of my own. Definitely recommend.

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like reading fiction about dysfunctional families, but this one had characters with only one layer. It really should have landed in my DNF pile along with one of the author's other books. The conflict for me is that I think the author is a good writer, she just needs to make her characters have something in them that makes the reader connect with.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

you can't help laughing with this family novel as the characters are always cracking each other up, even if, or because it's laughing from crying. this is one of many novels about modern, well off, liberal, usa jewish families i have been through lately:
Bee Season
The Free World (well, ok, here the family is BECOMING modern, well off, liberal.....)

Heir to the Glimmering World: A Novel
The Fallback Plan
To the End of the Land (isreal, same difference right?)
Life on Sandpaper
Ghost Lights
drinking closer is by far the most "hip", not turning away from addictions, coke hijinks, naked moms, crazy grandparents, pop music, bi hot tub sex, egg donation, etc. sort of a cozy beach read for modern, well off, liberal readers. fast read and fun.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was at once appalled and in love with this quirky family!

Anna, Portia and Emery are summoned back home when their mother, Louise, has a massive heart attack. During Louise's time in the hospital recovering, the three children reminisce about their childhood, their odd parents, Buzzy and Louise, their even odder extended family and where the road has taken them.

"It has only been recently that Anna forgave her mother for a litany of crimes Anna had been carrying in her stomach like a knotted squid."

As soon as I started reading Drinking Closer to Home, it felt so much like a memoir, I had to look at the copyright page just to make sure that it said "fiction" at the front. At the end of the book, the author interviews her own family, on whom the characters are based. What happens in between is pure magic.

Oh, how I cringed! Oh, how I laughed! Oh, how I felt compelled to turn the pages!

The very things that might make another family miserable are the very things that make this family work. The prolific swearing, the filthy house, and the unabashed drug use made me want to read the pages with my eyes half closed while learning about this crazy family. The humor, the brutal honesty, and the love made me want to want to be a part of it.

There were several scenes in the book that made me laugh out loud. There was one part in the book where we flashback to 1976 and the kids were visiting their grandparents Otto and Billie.

"Emory was hovering nearby, hiding himself from Otto, who had publicly called him Sissy Boy at least three times in the last hour. Emery thought that if only his grandfather could see the singing and dancing extravaganza of the Corny Kids Variety Show, he'd never call Emery a sissy again."

Emery was my favorite character in the book. He was embarrassed by his family, but didn't like being on the outside of things either. His struggle with his identity both in and out of his family moved me deeply.

All of the characters in this book were, in a word, colorful!

If you enjoyed The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, you will fall head over heels backward in love drunk with Drinking Closer to Home by Jessica Anya Blau.

[Kwoomac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story of three adult siblings who come together to visit their mother in the hospital after she has a serious heart attack. It's a wacky family and I was thankful over and over for my (somewhat) less crazy childhood. At times the reminiscing might seem over the top but, in fact, I went to high school with a girl whose family was pretty similar. *Also, see below. Here, the mother gets tired of being a parent, so she "quits" being a mother and spends all her time secluded in her studio, getting high and creating art. The father works long hours, leaving the three kids to raise themselves. My friend's parents were consciously choosing to raise their kids differently from their overly strict upbringing. As a result, the kids had their own apartment in the same building as parents did ( and they never invaded the kids' privacy!). Needless to say, there were some crazy times at the kids' apartment. There was an intercom system connecting the two should the kids need to talk to their parents. They needed to be at dinner every night at the parents', unless they had informed them earlier in the day ( I forget the cutoff time) so they could adjust the amt of food being prepared. That's the only rule I remember!

*While I was reading this, I sometimes felt like there were inconsistencies between the characters as children compared to as adults. After I finished, I read that this was a fairly autobiographical story of the author and her sibs' own childhood, so what do I know!

The title comes from an incident in the narrator's mother's own life. I'm hoping this isn't based on author's mother's own upbringing. Her parents were out drinking in a bar all night and realized they were too drunk to drive home. The next morning they remembered the baby was in the car and had to bring her to the hospital to deal with exposure, as it was winter.The lesson they took away from this disastrous event: drink closer to home! A cast of crazy characters I enjoyed spending some time with.

[Richard Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

(This review was originally published at The Nervous Breakdown.)

A touching, funny, and unflinching look at a dysfunctional family, Drinking Closer to Home (Harper Perennial) by Jessica Anya Blau is a history that many of us may have lived. Hippie parents, competition between siblings, and the growing pains that we all endured: these are the fond memories and nightmares of our youth. What do you do when your mother quits being a mother? When your father grows pot plants in the back yard? When your older sister turns into a cigarette smoking, hard drinking woman on the prowl? When your younger sister retreats into her shell, a beach bunny with hidden dreams? When you suspect your brilliant brother of being gay, a ghost lost in the shadow of his dominant sisters? These stories are told in a series of flashbacks from 1968 to the present while the family is gathered around the hospital bed of their mother as she recuperates from a heart attack. Their sordid tales of youth and adventure unfold at a rapid clip, as the present-day regrets and promises to change float about the sterile hospital room and the messy homestead as well. Louise the freewheeling mother; Buzzy the worrisome father; Anna the wild older sister; Portia the heartbroken younger sister; and Emery the shy brother, run us through the wringer, and in the process, endear themselves to us—holding up mirrors, and windows, and open hands, looking for forgiveness.

After the children unite around the hospital bed of their sick mother, we go back to the beginning, to their early childhood, to see how we got here. How did Anna become an unfaithful wife? How did Portia become a doormat? How did Emery become the voice of reason? It started when Louise decided to quit:

“The year Anna was eleven, Portia was eight, and Emery was three, Louise decided she quit being a housewife. Anna was playing Parcheesi with her sister on the family room floor when Louise told them.

‘Portia, Anna,’ Louise said, and she began searching through the little piles of papers, mail, phone books, and pencils that covered from end to end the white tile counter that separated the kitchen from the family room.

‘Yeah?’ Portia asked. Anna looked at her freckle-faced sister, her white, hairless flesh, her wispy brown hair that shone like corn silk. As much as she often hated her, she could understand why her parents were always pawing at her with hugs and kisses: the girl was like a pastry or a sweet. She looked edible.

Anna was as small as Portia. But she was all muscle and sinew, as if she were made of telephone cables. No one ever wanted to pinch telephone cables. She rolled the dice and ignored her mother.

‘Come here,’ Louise said. She continued to shift things around. Portia pushed her doughy rump up and went to the counter. She moved aside an empty box that had held ten Hot Wheels racing cars and handed her mother the pack of unfiltered Camel cigarettes she was most likely looking for.

‘I quit.’"

Can you imagine what that kind of statement would do to a household of children? The responsibility, the pressure: the freedom. A wave of emotions would wash over you at such irresponsible behavior by an adult. Or is it empowering? Does it build character? The response:

“‘What do you mean you quit?’ Portia climbed onto the orange stool. Anna wondered when her sister would stop asking questions.

‘Your turn,’ Anna said. She looked toward her sister’s back and watched as her mother pursed her lips and let out a slow stream of smoke.

‘I quit being a housewife.’ Louise shook her hair and smiled.

‘Can you do that?’ Portia asked.

Anna was going to pretend she wasn’t listening. There was something inside her that often led her to believe that if she ignored certain things they would cease to exist. She turned the Parcheesi board over and dumped the pieces on the rug.

‘Of course I can. I just did. I quit!’ Louise took another drag off her cigarette.”

And so it begins: Louise out in her studio writing poetry and sketching surreal artwork, Buzzy harvesting his pot crops, while Emery tried to burn them down, leaving Anna and Portia in charge of the chaos that is their ever changing house and home.

As we jump back and forth between the chaos of their youth and the chaos of their adult lives we get the story from all sides. We see the tough love of their grandfather Otto, always asking Portia, “You still in Dummy School?” He jokes to the other family members asking “…did you see the tits on these girls?” While in the present Portia’s life unravels, her own husband leaving her, having an affair, even as she is pregnant. We see a young Anna join the police force, go undercover, and have an affair with her partner, the excitement of the dangerous work a sure aphrodisiac. In the present-day, her affairs are common knowledge to the family, and they joke about her inability to stay faithful. Her own child Blue seems more like an overstuffed handbag, something she lugs around out of necessity, but not something that she enjoys carrying. We see Emery lost in the mix of everything, ignored by grandparents and parents alike, often disappearing as he gets older, unnoticed by his family members as he embraces his newfound gay lifestyle. In the present-day, he is the one that finds true love, in Alejandro, and seeks to have a child—if his sisters will only donate an egg.

But this novel is not simply a list of mistakes and problems, addictions and betrayals. It is hilarious as well. As the family members make fun of themselves, often picking at each other in the process, there is laughter and humor throughout. And Jessica Anya Blau isn’t afraid to work blue, either. When Anna and Portia try on clothes, taking a break from the depressing hospital room and the stress of sitting by their mother’s side all day long, Anna swears there is a cum stain on her skirt. As she recounts a memory of her sexual adventures as a young girl, Anna doesn’t realize that Portia is no longer in the dressing room next to her—it’s Randy Freeman’s mother:

“‘I think there’s a cum spot on this skirt,” Anna says. Portia doesn’t respond.

‘God,’ Anna says, looking at her face in the mirror, turning from angle to angle. ‘Did I ever tell you about that time that I gave Randy Freeman a hand job in the janitor’s closet at school and he came all over my black pants and I couldn’t get it out? I swear, it was like there was an iron-on cloud on my pants.’

The stall door opens and a stiff-haired woman in a pantsuit steps out. Her face is white. Her hands are shaking as she washes them. Anna looks over at the stall Portia had been in and sees that the clothes are no longer flung over the divider. She wants to laugh and she wants to leave the bathroom but she is somehow stuck in place with the glue of embarrassment.

‘How do you know Randy Freeman?’ the woman asks.”

As I got to know these people (and they really did become human beings to me) I became invested. I wanted Louise to get better, even with all of her screw-ups. I wanted Portia to find love, the naïve girl with the huge heart. I wanted Anna to find a way to stop being so angry, to find peace, and to stop running around. Shocked by some of Buzzy’s admissions, I was still willing to give him another chance. I vowed that I wouldn’t cry reading this book, but Jessica Anya Blau finally got me towards the end when Emery and Anna have a touching moment, the distances a lifetime has created melting away in one gesture, relief washing over me, their embrace a welcome conclusion.

There are no vampires in this novel, no portals to other worlds, or crimes to be solved, nothing to prop up the narrative except truth, and emotion, and love. In all of the many ways that we as human beings use and then need each other, this is Jessica Anya Blau’s story. What is it they say about family? You can’t choose them? No, you can’t. But the lengths that we go to in order to protect our inner circle, the threads of our lives, every frayed bit of string, every bright patch and faded piece of fabric, it is ours, it is our experience, and it is our evolution. Drinking Closer to Home is a powerful book, and an emotionally draining experience—much like family. Would you have it any other way?

[Sean Beaudoin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Through this very funny and forthright look at an unusual family dynamic (actually far more usual than the family itself imagines), Blau has written a Santa Barbara morality tale. A present-day medical emergency forces three siblings to confront the ways in which their pre-seatbelt and bike helmet 70's upbringing has informed who they've become. The story, told in refreshingly clean prose (there is no overt cleverness to distract--Blau knows her story and its details are more than enough to keep our attention) is delivered from multiple perspectives. Each sibling gets their say on shared experiences, leading to a more compelling understanding of what otherwise might have been just comic set pieces. The juggled points of view are handled seamlessly, many chapters delivering the arc of a good short story. The episodic nature of the time frame also nests cleverly with a series of personal revelations, each shift revealing another portentous layer. Drinking Closer to Home is a lot of fun--too exact and specific to be entirely fiction, but too satisfying to be constrained by memoir.

[Merredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book took me a long time (for me) to read because I read a few books in between while I was reading this one. It just didn't capture me too much. I liken it to an independent movie, which are often about not much at all, and then just end. It had sort of a plot... Three grown children return to their parents when their mom has a heart attack, and then the book intersperses with flashbacks from the perspective of different kids about their upbringing or growing up. While growing up, the parents were kind of hoarders, they neglected the kids a lot, and the mom was a pothead. they all seemed to mellow out with age. It was sorta interesting but in a not interesting way. I didnt like these people.

[Susan Henderson]

Imagine a home with a nudist mother, a bird that perches on the living room curtain rod and shits on the couch, and an empty pool in the backyard filled with bikes. Imagine growing up in this home and then returning as an adult to the hospital bedside of this nudist mother. A gloriously rich portrait of three adult children who discover the tensions and hurts they still have between them are inextractable from the laughter and love.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy read, kept my attention, but it was almost dysfunction overload for me. I kept thinking that maybe this was a true story because several chapters were sending me the 'too crazy not to be true' vibe. The author definitely kept my attention because I wanted to quickly get to the end of this book to see how author let the characters evolve. I would definitely recommend this book to friends, but not to my mom!
ok...i changed my rating because i met the author and found out that this book is pretty much non-fiction. unbelievable story about her childhood. the dysfunction in her family was totally unbelievable but listening to jessica discuss her childhood made me realize that her family truly loved each other and are still very bonded.

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drinking Closer to Home by Jessica Anya Blau is a wonderful, sweet, poignant, and hilarious novel about family relationships. It's a brutally honest look at a truly dysfunctional family that takes place (in many flashbacks) from the 1970's to the early 1990's. Every character is flawed, but they're some of the most likable, intriguing characters that I've ever come across. I absolutely loved this book! I looked forward to each moment I could spend with this wonderful, crazy, loving family and was sad when the story came to an end. I will definitely be reading more from this author. The quality of her writing is excellent, and she sure can tell a delightful tale!

[Greg Olear · Rating 5 out of 5]

The family of Southern California eccentrics who populate Jessica Anya Blau’s tour de force of a second novel are written with such warmth and tenderness that for all of their foibles -- and said foibles run the gamut; there is enough delicious debauchery here to make a summer of naked swim parties look like eight weeks at YMCA camp -- it’s impossible not to love them. I want to hang out with the Steins. You will, too. Blau is a masterful storyteller.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

With their cute family jokes & secrets that have to be explained to outsiders to the pot smoking mom that will only swim nude, this book explores the spectrum of all families. Every family is dysfunctional some are just more out there than others. This family is OUT there dysfunctional but in the end they love, laugh, share and support one another so it works. I really think that is all that matters.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining and upbeat at the end, but an awful lot of dysfunction, drugs and sex in the middle. The story of how three siblings come together as adults around their mom's sickbed, with flashbacks to their colorful childhood, kept my interest. But I ended up liking it MUCH more after meeting the author, Jessica Blau, when she came to our book club meeting! The book is almost a memoir, but written as fiction. She is utterly charming and told us all the details about what was true and what was rearranged from the way it really happened. Knowing about the real people and their lives now makes me like the book much more!

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, this went from a 2 to a 4 because of the last third of the book. I wish that the story had grabbed me sooner, but I initially found it written little haphazardly and not the "laugh out loud funny" that I expected. But, a little more than halfway through, I started to feel invested in the plot and the characters. This is a good example of sticking w/ a book until the end. I could have tossed it aside 100 pages in, but I'm really glad I didn't. It made me smile and it actually made me cry (which is hard to do!).

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading the first few chapters, I was sure I was going to hate this book. I got to the end, and I was sad. The story was crazy, the timelines were all over the place, the characters were... well, colorful to say the least. Once I adjusted to the timeline - really, just think of it as the way memories work: present and past. Present is linear, but remembering the past isn't. Memories happen at any time. I loved the characters, I think Emery was my favorite. I just loved this book!

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I was close to giving up on this book. I understand that this is about a somewhat non-conventional family but it really was extreme and bordered on child neglect if not outright abuse. It mellowed out a bit as it went on and became an interesting story about the lives of the kids as now adults but their parents and extended family are really whacked.

[Erica]

I can't say enough how much I loved this book. It builds upon Summer of Naked Swim Parties, Jessica's previous novel. While that was sweet coming of age, this is a more mature, funnier family novel. Can't wait till it comes out in January and I can start promoting the hell out of it.

[Jessica Feltz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story of a complex, flawed, lovably dysfunctional family provides an understanding window into the judgments we harbor, the patterns we repeat, and the truths we hold close to our chests.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I list this under both general fiction and memoir, because it is unclear which parts are true, but in the back of the book, Jessica Anya Blau says she uses real family members and some things that really happened as a "launching pad." The writing is very good, the characters in this dysfunctional family bigger than life.

The reader sees three very different children raised in what can, at best, be called benign neglect. The two young sisters raise their younger brother, Emery, and he turns out to be the most stable member of the family. He is indeed the most loved child (although not by either set of grandparents!), but he sometimes feels his sisters do too much mental probing, and he has (or thinks he has) a secret to protect. I have a hard time reconciling the transition in the older sister, Anna, from childhood, when she was the most responsible for cooking and cleaning and the only one tuned-in to and angry about how dysfunctional the family was, to the extreme self-destructiveness of her wild adolescent and young adulthood. The middle child, Portia, is unshakably mellow, maternal, and lovely. She is the one who takes full responsibility (at 9!) for raising Emery, but falls apart as an adult when her husband leaves her. She is clearly the one that the author identifies with.

The chapters alternate back and forth between their past and their adult selves when they return to California to hover in their mother's hospital room after she has a massive heart attack. One thing that made it hard for me to get into the book was that I was expecting something funnier, deceived by several of the blurbs on the covers of the book calling it "sidesplittingly funny," "hilarious," etc. I found the whole story sad and did not laugh once. The only part I thought was a little funny was when the two sets of wildly different grandparents met and had to spend some time together: stereotyped conservative rednecks on one side and stereotyped kosher Yiddish-speaking Jewish Northeasterners on the other. Oy veh.

[L.V. Sage · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drinking Closer to Home

I wanted to like this book more than I did. Growing up in the 1970s in Southern California myself, I did appreciate the nostalgia of this story. Also my father’s side of the family were Jewish, so again, I could relate to this novel. However, these people were so unbelievably dysfunctional that it was a bit difficult to overcome
that in order to enjoy the story. I wasn’t particularly fond of any of the characters in the first half of the book ( Portia, Louise and Buzzy grew on me I the latter part of the book). Some of the story seemed completely unnecessary ( there was an entire chapter that made me wonder why it was in the book at all) and a lot of it left me shaking my head. However, I don’t want to say all negative things about this book. Obviously, I’m in the minority as it seems that most readers really loved this book. Blau’s dialogue is particularly strong and as I writer myself, I feel that believable conversations between characters is key to readers be able to relate to them. There were a few minor editing errors, but nothing major. I felt that the last quarter of the book was particularly strong and I did enjoy that part of it. Again, I am definitely in the minority in my opinion.

[Beth Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of years ago I read The Wonder Bread Summer by the same author. I gave it three stars also, but my memory of it is fond and I seem to think of it more as a 3.5-4 star read.

This was, for me personally a 2.5 star read. The writing isn't bad, of course. I like this author. I like what she attempts to achieve with her books. I like that her characters tend to be roughly in my age range so I tend to identify with their life experiences.

That's why this one was a tough read for me.

It was billed as humorous. It is not. Sure, every family has those moments that are blow-milk-out-your-nose funny, right? Right?

But that's not necessarily humor. That can be a release valve letting steam out of a pressure cooker.

How can a fictional family be so completely different from your own, yet hit every single damn negative trigger you remember?

Watching people you love die is not fun. Watching people you love deliberately and knowingly engage in behaviors that will ultimately kill them is not humorous. Them pissing you off while they do it and screw the consequences is definitely not humorous. At all.

I bought that t-shirt, folks. The fact that any of us is still alive has more to do with sheer luck and a fickle universe than bragging rights and bravado.

So, yeah: humorous family drama my ass.

I'm more concerned this could be a memoir - if not for the author than for a few of the rest of us out here.

[Kathy Ewald · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a family and their idiosyncrasies and rivalries and growing pains. Three siblings grow up with differing opinions of their parents and family life. They then start their lives and r called back by their father when their mother becomes ill. The chapters go from the present into the past from the 1960s to the 1990’s. First I will complain that at one point the author has the family vacation on Fire Island which is on Long Island not in Long Island. Also a bigger issue to a native Long Islander is Fire Island is between The Great South Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The Long Island sound is on the north shore. Plus taking a train to get to Fire Island is fine but not getting off at Islip. It would be Bay Shore or Sayville or Patchogue. Sorry for these complaints but honestly that’s all I have to complain about. The book was a great read about a very dysfunctional yet very funny family. My favorite parts are when Portia thinks one of her mom’s cats hates her and starts having conversations with the cat where the cat talks back to her. I gave this 4 stars. I have now read all of Jessica Anya Blair’s work so far. Can’t wait for her next book.

[Emie Garrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a major proponent for the idea that books find us when we need them most. I never would have thought this random book I picked up on a whim in a second-hand book store would speak so directly to my heart and soul. The writing, the characters, the story— I never wanted it to end.

Such an honest portrayal of familial love and dynamics. This story is for anyone from a wildly dysfunctional family full of hard-to-love people that you can’t help loving in spite of themselves. I laughed out loud, cried and was grinning like a fool throughout. I miss Anna, Portia, Emery, Buzzy and Louise already.

Easily in my top three favorite books ever, and I’m so excited to read more by Jessica Anya Blau.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wild ride of a book. Three siblings return to their family home to visit their - hospitalized from a massive heart attack - mother. While there they try to make sense of their incredibly unconventional upbringing. They also try to make sense of their current lives, as dad is having an affair, the oldest daughter is also having an affair & has a newborn. Middle daughter is pregnant and alone, as her husband is having an affair. And the youngest is trying to get his sisters to give him & his partner an egg so that they can conceive a child with his gene-set.

It took me 2-3 chapters to get into, but I was glad I stuck it out. Definitely not for anyone who is not interested in the drug & sex culture.

Ebook.