Oh the Glory of It All

Wilsey's father was a distant, wealthy man who used a helicopter when a moped would do and whose mandates included squeegeeing the stall after every shower. Much of Wilsey's youth was spent as subservient to, or rebelling against this imposing man. But the maternal figures in Wilsey's childhood were no less affecting. His mother, a San Francisco society butterfly turned globe-trotting peace promoter, seemed to behave only in extremes--either trying to convince young Sean to commit suicide with her, or arranging impromptu meetings with the Pope and Mikhail Gorbachev. And Dede, his demon of a stepmother, would have made the Brothers Grimm shiver.

As always with memoirs one must take expansive sections of recalled dialogue with a grain of salt, but Wilsey's short, unflinching sentences keep his outlandish story moving too quickly for much quibbling. In the end, Wilsey says, "It took the unlikely combination of the three of them--mother, father, stepmother--to make me who I am." It's a fairly basic conclusion after 479 pages of turning every stone, but it's also one that renders his story--more than shocking or glorious--human. --Brangien Davis

Product Description
Seans blond-bombshell mother regularly entertains Black Panthers and movie stars in the familys marble and glass penthouse. His enigmatic father uses a jet helicopter to drop Sean off at the video arcade. The three live happily together eight-hundred feet in the air above San Francisco; in an apartment at the top of a building at the top of a hill: full of light, full of voices, full of windows, full of water and bridges and hills. But when his father divorces his mother and marries her best friend, Seans life blows apart. His memoir shows us how he survived, spinning out a deliriously searing and convincing portrait of a wicked stepmother (The New York Times Book Review), a meeting with the pope, sexual awakening, and a tour of the planets most interesting reform schools (Details). BACKCOVER: A memoir that announces the debut of a remarkably gifted, daring and, yes, very funny, writer.
Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

The cliche truth is stranger than fiction may well have been coined to describe Sean Wilseys wild, wise, and whip-smart memoir.
Elle

[An] irreverent and remarkably candid memoir about growing up in wealthy eighties San Francisco . . . rollicking, ruthless . . . ultimately generous-hearted.
Vogue

A vivid mix of brio, self-awareness and sophistication . . . writing well is indeed the best revenge.
The New York Times Book Review