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hill_'s review
4.0
My experience of this book was sort of the opposite of the one I had with Babylon by Bus. I had almost no expectations of it, except that Snazzby gave it 5 stars. About a quarter of the way in I was so bored, and could not figure out why Sean Wilsey even wrote a memoir. Then it kind of got awesome. His horror story of an education was crazy to read, and his crazy family was a freaking horror story.
justin4285's review
1.0
Dreadful. Horrible.
About 2% was worth reading. The trouble is you have to read 100 pages to find 3 sentences that are enjoyable. And then do it again, and again, because this book is endless.
I only finished it because I needed closure to erase it completely from my memory.
About 2% was worth reading. The trouble is you have to read 100 pages to find 3 sentences that are enjoyable. And then do it again, and again, because this book is endless.
I only finished it because I needed closure to erase it completely from my memory.
willkay's review
1.0
Oh the Glory of It All by Sean Wilsey is an autobiography. In theory it has the potential for a good story. Sean Wilsey and his parents are not people I have heard of before but they have travelled in circles that include the rich and the famous. Sean's parents divorced when he was young and the story of their divorce was a major news event in San Francisco. His father went on to re-marry (an evil step mum), his mother went on to set up a Children for Peace organisation (and has now written her own reply: Oh the Hell of It All), Sean ended up dropping out of school after school.
The beginning of the book, the story of his parent's divorce, the moving between houses is interesting. You can understand his desire to be liked, to be loved. You follow his problems at settling in and school and you agree with his hatred of life in expensive private schools - it appears that lacrosse players have always been bastards! The book follows his descent into alcohol, drugs and skateboarding. His descent through schools that were full of over-privileged children who were going to somewhere to schools full of young adults who were going nowhere to a small school of eight who were trying to find their way back into society. The methods used in each of these schools to help Sean find himself are extreme - much worse than the military school that he ran away from before he even entered the door. And so, as a novel it has its interesting moments.
However, this was the 100 word synopsis that Mr. Wilsey used to sell the book to his publishers. Unfortunately, round about page 300, he gives up on this story and spends the next 150 pages telling the story of his relationship with his father/evil step-mother. Although this could have been a good story it isn't. Instead of writing a tale that is complicated and complex, he just whines and whines and whines. I finished the book but I sped-read the last 100 pages, turning over quickly and reading the odd paragraph here and there, trying to find something that might hold my attention. I didn't.
I finished the book (mainly because I didn't want to abandon another book in mid-stream) but it was with no sense of longing (wishing that I could follow more of the story, more of the characters), nor did I finish it with any sense of joy (feeling uplifted). I finished with more of a sense of "I've finished!"
The beginning of the book, the story of his parent's divorce, the moving between houses is interesting. You can understand his desire to be liked, to be loved. You follow his problems at settling in and school and you agree with his hatred of life in expensive private schools - it appears that lacrosse players have always been bastards! The book follows his descent into alcohol, drugs and skateboarding. His descent through schools that were full of over-privileged children who were going to somewhere to schools full of young adults who were going nowhere to a small school of eight who were trying to find their way back into society. The methods used in each of these schools to help Sean find himself are extreme - much worse than the military school that he ran away from before he even entered the door. And so, as a novel it has its interesting moments.
However, this was the 100 word synopsis that Mr. Wilsey used to sell the book to his publishers. Unfortunately, round about page 300, he gives up on this story and spends the next 150 pages telling the story of his relationship with his father/evil step-mother. Although this could have been a good story it isn't. Instead of writing a tale that is complicated and complex, he just whines and whines and whines. I finished the book but I sped-read the last 100 pages, turning over quickly and reading the odd paragraph here and there, trying to find something that might hold my attention. I didn't.
I finished the book (mainly because I didn't want to abandon another book in mid-stream) but it was with no sense of longing (wishing that I could follow more of the story, more of the characters), nor did I finish it with any sense of joy (feeling uplifted). I finished with more of a sense of "I've finished!"
rebeccabiega's review
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Great memoir from the son of two San Francisco high- society narcissists. Very funny, sad, and full of good SF stories and descriptions.
eml898's review
2.0
Sean Wilsey tells his long story in a bit of a play-by-play fashion. I found it difficult to empathise with him. maybe says more about me than him, but the rich kid fuck up storyline is hard for me to care about.
anniew415's review
3.0
I enjoyed this memoir quite a bit...and not just because I knew a lot of the people mentioned in it. Wilsey writes a fun, fast-paced, exciting memoir and it's really enjoyable!
I did think things slowed down a time or two here and there and I didn't really understand all of what he was talking about when describing his group therapy sessions, but overall it works.
An entertaining ride of sadness, extravagance, high society, San Francisco stories, and a tale of a little boy lost...
I did think things slowed down a time or two here and there and I didn't really understand all of what he was talking about when describing his group therapy sessions, but overall it works.
An entertaining ride of sadness, extravagance, high society, San Francisco stories, and a tale of a little boy lost...
heathernj9's review against another edition
4.0
Dark humor, very funny and telling memoir. He works for McSweeney's.
leilaniann's review
2.0
I was interested in reading this book because the bulk of it is set in SF, and since I am from the bay I love reading about it. The backdrop of the story did not disappoint, but unfortunately, the book was 1-200 pages too long. It dragged in a major way, especially the details about the author's time spent in several different schools. Also, at one point he uses a passage from the book Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami to help describe one of the schools he goes to, and the passage goes on for multiple pages. I have never seen such a long passage from another book used in this way; it felt incredibly lazy. If you care about the real people he is talking about from SF's "high society," then you will be happy to read this book for the gossip, but in general the book was not worth the amount of time I put into.
irena_smith's review
4.0
The first Goodreads review I saw pretty much nails it: "weird and funny and engrossing and moving... awkward and good." Also long (479 pages). But I didn't want it to end, not for a minute. There's a scene early on in which young Sean cuts a strategically placed hole in a Playboy centerfold and tries to... you know. "I love you," he says to the centerfold. "I want to have babies with you." The description continues: "I pressed myself down and she crinkled. This was not glorious."
I mean, how do you not continue reading? Especially after Sean's wealthy father leaves his mother for her gold-digging best friend, the best friend's ex-husband marries author Danielle Steel (who apparently also had an affair with Sean's father), the best friend becomes the kind of stepmother that makes Snow White seem lucky, Sean's mother becomes a global peace emissary (but not before inviting Sean to leap off a high-rise balcony with her), and Sean becomes a low-key skateboarding hooligan flying over the hills of San Francisco when he's not being bounced between boarding schools. Eventually he ends up at Amity, a therapeutic boarding school straight out of Murakami's Norwegian Wood, only this one is in a 16th-century palazzo in Tuscany; there, among people who take a benevolent interest in him, he begins to slow down. "Thank God there was a place, briefly, where tenderness was possible, in exchange for money," he writes. He finds himself. He makes lifelong friends. He returns to the US and starts digging into his family history and the history of San Francisco. He becomes a writer.
Apart from masterfully capturing a moment in time—San Francisco in the '80s and '90s in particular—this is also memoir-as-revenge, which, if I'm being honest, is my favorite kind, especially if it's done well. This is done well; Sean names names and squeezes juicy details for all they're worth, and if rumors are true that the evil stepmother hired a PR company to do damage control in the wake of its publication—well, that's pretty glorious, isn't it?
I mean, how do you not continue reading? Especially after Sean's wealthy father leaves his mother for her gold-digging best friend, the best friend's ex-husband marries author Danielle Steel (who apparently also had an affair with Sean's father), the best friend becomes the kind of stepmother that makes Snow White seem lucky, Sean's mother becomes a global peace emissary (but not before inviting Sean to leap off a high-rise balcony with her), and Sean becomes a low-key skateboarding hooligan flying over the hills of San Francisco when he's not being bounced between boarding schools. Eventually he ends up at Amity, a therapeutic boarding school straight out of Murakami's Norwegian Wood, only this one is in a 16th-century palazzo in Tuscany; there, among people who take a benevolent interest in him, he begins to slow down. "Thank God there was a place, briefly, where tenderness was possible, in exchange for money," he writes. He finds himself. He makes lifelong friends. He returns to the US and starts digging into his family history and the history of San Francisco. He becomes a writer.
Apart from masterfully capturing a moment in time—San Francisco in the '80s and '90s in particular—this is also memoir-as-revenge, which, if I'm being honest, is my favorite kind, especially if it's done well. This is done well; Sean names names and squeezes juicy details for all they're worth, and if rumors are true that the evil stepmother hired a PR company to do damage control in the wake of its publication—well, that's pretty glorious, isn't it?
tashaw's review
DNF p.224-- only made it that far because I was in a waiting room. Just not for me; I was bored. I need to stick to horror/fantasy/scifi