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Oh the Glory of It All | 
 enlarge | Author: Sean Wilsey
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  85 reviews
Sales Rank: 347559
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.9
ISBN: 1594200513
Dewey Decimal Number: 979.461053092
EAN: 9781594200519
ASIN: 1594200513
Publication Date: May 19, 2005
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Condition: Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy!
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Amazon.com Review
"A memoir, at its heart, is written in order to figure out who you are," writes Sean Wilsey, and indeed, Oh the Glory of it All is compelling proof of his exhaustive personal quest. It's no surprise that as a kid in the '80s, Wilsey found similarities between his own life and his beloved Lord of the Rings and Star Wars--his journey was fraught with unnerving characters too. 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
"In the beginning we were happy. And we were always excessive. So in the beginning we were happy to excess." With these opening lines Sean Wilsey takes us on an exhilarating tour of life in the strangest, wealthiest, and most grandiose of families.
Sean's blond-bombshell mother (one of the thinly veiled characters in Armistead Maupin's bestselling Tales of the City) is a 1980s society-page staple, regularly entertaining Black Panthers and movie stars in her marble and glass penthouse, "eight hundred feet in the air above San Francisco; 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." His enigmatic father uses a jet helicopter to drop Sean off at the video arcade and lectures his son on proper hygiene in public restrooms, "You should wash your hands first, before you use the urinal. Not after. Your penis isn't dirty. But your hands are."
When Sean, "the kind of child who sings songs to sick flowers," turns nine years old, his father divorces his mother and marries her best friend. Sean's life blows apart. His mother first invites him to commit suicide with her, then has a "vision" of salvation that requires packing her Louis Vuitton luggage and traveling the globe, a retinue of multiracial children in tow. Her goal: peace on earth (and a Nobel Prize). Sean meets Indira Gandhi, Helmut Kohl, Menachem Begin, and the pope, hoping each one might come back to San Francisco and persuade his father to rejoin the family. Instead, Sean is pushed out of San Francisco and sent spiraling through five high schools, till he finally lands at an unorthodox reform school cum "therapeutic community," in Italy.
With its multiplicity of settings and kaleidoscopic mix of preoccupations-sex, Russia, jet helicopters, seismic upheaval, boarding schools, Middle Earth, skinheads, home improvement, suicide, skateboarding, Sovietology, public transportation, massage, Christian fundamentalism, dogs, Texas, global thermonuclear war, truth, evil, masturbation, hope, Bethlehem, CT, eventual salvation (abridged list)-Oh the Glory of It All is memoir as bildungsroman as explosion.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 80 more reviews...
Good book about a bad childhood July 22, 2008
I came to THE GLORY OF IT ALL via Pat Montandon's slightly over-the-top memoir, WHISPERS FROM GOD (formerly THE HELL OF IT ALL, a take-off on the title of this book). I listened to this book on CD and it was well-performed by the reader.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and dimly remembered Ms. Montandon, who lived and was famous/infamous here from the early 60's to approx. the 1990's. That was why I picked up her memoir. I was unaware of her contentious divorce from Al Wilsey, or more accurately his divorce from her - "for her best friend" - back in the 80's. The divorce is central to her story and to this one.
Though the Montandon book was a "guilty pleasure" sort of read, Sean Wilsey's book is well written, engaging and even fascinating.
Basically, Sean's is the story of an only child with two older parents, both very successful in their own fields, both extremely self-involved. Neither seemed to have been a particularly capable parent before the divorce - but when the divorce comes (he's about 10,) Sean gets completely lost in the shuffle - with the able assistance of his new step-mom. Little did step-mom know as she was doing her cruel best to hurt Sean and distance him from his dad that he would grow up to write a scathing memoir one day! And the timing of its publication fairly coincided with the reopening of San Francisco's esteemed DeYoung Museum - a project for which the step-mom prominently fundraised and received much press. Talk about raining on someone's parade...however, if this tale is only half true step-mom was asking for it. Meanwhile, Sean's own mom was lost wallowing in her own rage, humiliation and self-pity at being dumped for a lesser woman (Pat was known for her looks, step-mom seems not to have been) who posed as her friend and stole her man. Mom then goes off the New Age deep end in globetrotting pursuit of world peace (?!?). Sean's dad, Al - well, he had other children of earlier marriages and seems to have moved with relative ease from family to family on his way to great wealth and social prominence.
Sean's personal tale of family rejection, floundering in the world, failing at a variety of schools, and ultimately resurrecting himself is well worth reading/listening to. I'm sure his story has much in common with that of any child who's been the pawn in a messy divorce, been neglected by parents, or the target of a malevolent step-parent - whether rich, middle-class or poor.
Though much of this story is sad, Wilsey writes with wry humor, irony and even compassion and avoids self-pity. In the end Sean not only survives but flourishes and comes to terms with the past.
 Cream of the Crop April 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Just when you think this memoir thing has played out...Sean Wilsey comes along and jazzes it up several notches. Almost as much fun as actually hurling fruit bombs off the penthouse deck at passing cars (a scene of Wilsey's veritable mispent youth), and as rousing as a song & dance number from Pippin, this book is relentlessly funny/poignant in the way that it takes no prisoners and puts everyone, especially Wilsey, under the psychic microscope. Like an imaginary blend of Salman Rushdie, Philip Roth and Tobias Wolf, this book kept me up several nights in a row just to see how Wilsey would get through the awful emotional pin-ball game of his youth. If for no other reason, I had to see if he might actually realize his fantasy of following in his father's footsteps, and bedding the villainous step-mom Dede -- the new gold-standard for narcissism and cruelty. I won't tell you what happens. Just buy the damn thing! Read it! Have a blast! This one will be hard to top.
A mixed bag. April 7, 2008
Like Sean Wilsey's life, this book is full of ups and downs. The book moves in waves, and at the risk of being too metaphorical, it literally is like the ocean. The chapters crescendo, hitting the reader hard. This book brought forth so many emotions for me. I laughed, I almost cried (like some of the main characters, I was medicated during my reading), I was angered, I was annoyed. The author does not present his life story in order for the reader to judge him or his family/acquaintances. Therefore, it is unfair to review this book for its character development. Wilsey presents the characters warts and all, including himself. I do not think he wants the reader to feel sorry for him. I didn't. As he says throughout the book, this was just the way his life is and he was doing his best to get through it, year by year. Going back to the wave metaphor, this book definitely has its low tide moments. There are certain passages and in fact whole chapters I wanted to be over. However, he strikes back right away to keep you moving through the book. Other reviewers of this book have complained about its length and its need for substantive edits. I disagree. It is not the readers place to suggest edits for one's memoir. The reader needs to invest in Wilsey's writing by trusting him to convey his story at his own pace. I did. It was worth it. Sean Wilsey's memoir is a great read, brilliantly put together, and the best memoir I have read. If you are willing to trust the author and set aside a few weeks to get through it, "Oh the Glory of it All" is a fantastically, engaging book.
Wonderful But Sad Story March 26, 2008
I did not actually read the book but I listened to it in the CD version. Being a New Yorker, I must be a bit insulated because I have never heard of the Wilsey family. As such, I spent the first 75% of the listening time thinking it was fictional. Spoke to a friend in San Fran to suggest the book and he made me realize these were real people.
My first reaction was shock and rage at Dede who is Sean's step mother for the horrible things she said to Sean as a child during some very tender years. I saw it as a cruel form of abuse and if it were physical, she would have been put in jail. What a horrible woman. When she dies, she will surely occupy one of the warmer parts of hell.
I found the book itself to be great. A wonderful story that made me cringe. They say the rich are different. Perhaps that is right but at the bottom line, I would not have traded my life of street pizza and stick ball in Brooklyn for one day of Sean's money or childhood.
Read this book. I highly recommended it. You will not be sorry that you read this book. As far as Sean is concerned, I think he is well and living in NYC. I hope he has put it behind him and is enjoying life in that most magical city.
 Spontaneous Human Combustion March 25, 2008
I have always wanted to become filthy rich. Like many, I have succeeeded on occasion in the former but never in the latter. Sean Wilsey, author of "Oh the Glory of It All," wants to become filthy rich too, and he has a much better shot at it than I do. In fact, the life he desires is so close, so within his reach, that it is happening mere blocks from his home and is being lived by his father (along with Dad's new wife and his two Stepford stepsons) while Sean and his mother fester and scheme in their duplex penthouse atop Russian Hill.
In the wake of her apparently well-plotted abandonment, Sean's mom -- Pat Montandon -- wants him to commit suicide with her, or maybe she'll just die of cancer. Pat's not sure but methods of revenge are discussed. The means of manipulation she employs are not lost on Sean. They frighten and enlighten him. Al Wilsey has left Pat, a society columnist, for, well, society. And Sean is left out. (In the movie version, Pat Montandon should be played by Sharon Stone. She'd be perfect. I can see her now rapping with the Black Panthers at one of her post-divorce roundtable discussions in the '70s.)
DeDe, Sean's new stepmom, is a real piece of, uh, work. DeDe holds the key to admittance into the charmed life Sean's father is now leading without him. Sean fawns over DeDe on the rare occasions he sees her, fantasizes about her in his bedroom, but he can't break in, until he breaks in literally, ripping the door off his father's mansion and stealing some of his possessions. He makes his point. But he doesn't stop there. When his aggressive, angry nature surfaces, the reader doesn't see it coming. He has portrayed himself, up to this point, as a passive personality.
Something must be done before Sean kills someone. (He has taken to tossing fruit off the penthouse balcony, barely missing pedestrians 800 feet below.) Sean's a druggie drinker with a skateboard and no use for studying. This is his long-aborning cry for help, but it leaves his family confused. Now both his mother and father are fed up with him. Instead of acknowledging his intelligence and creativity, Dad sends him to various "lock-down schools," as DeDe calls them, even escorting him to a couple.
We don't understand the disconnect between father and son. Mirror images, we see they love each other. They have a touching closeness, literally and figuratively. Is it just the appearance of DeDe in their lives, or is it Sean? Probably a combo deal - Dad's got a cute little heiress, and even though he's rich, she's richer and he'll do just about anything she says to keep her. She'd prefer not to have a reminder of the woman she stabbed in the back to get her husband. Bye bye Sean.
Unfortunately, the book lags as we follow Sean on his revolving-door boarding school escapades. This is not good because it takes us away from DeDe. Just like Sean, we want DeDe also. But we want her in a different way. Her malevolent presence enlivens the narrative of this book. Without her, we don't care as much. Without DeDe, this book is just another memoir about a teenager finding himself. Take a walk past any high school and you'll see the same story played out right there in your neighborhood. In fact, I'd venture a guess that many of these neighborhood memoirists might have a better tale to tell.
Of course the props are better in "Oh the Glory of It All." Sean can name them all, and does, lustily. He has taken early to the glimpse of wealth he was raised with and furious when it is taken away. At the end, he even mentions the hearse carrying Dad to his final rest is a "late model." (Like his dad?)
We already know that there's no money for Sean or his siblings in the will, and one suspects this is why he wrote the book. He blames DeDe when he realizes the money is all going to charity, and that he will not have a hand in the charity selected.
DeDe knows that Al Wilsey wants his name on something in San Francisco, and she knows how to do it. Wilsey Court is the first thing you see at the DeYoung Museum.
If you have ever lived with an especially toxic stepparent, you will ache for Sean Wilsey as he tries to find himself and connect with his father. Al Wilsey, though, can't help but like women better than he likes his own offspring. He doesn't care if they're rich or poor as long as they're hot. When Sean is bringing his father to life, he does a great job.
As another reviewer says, "[Wilsey] often seems to be writing with an open heart, and out of an open wound. If only a fraction of the stories he relates are true--he tells us that Dede routinely berated him for being a "faggot" when he was a boy--you will want to give him a hug."
And maybe suggest he get a job. Ahhh, but apparently he doesn't have to. While he is not as rich rich as Dad was, he's well-off himself, even without having written the hit job on his folks. You won't find this in the book, however.
Three stars. Great read.
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