Overview

Joe Queenan's acerbic riffs on movies, sports, books, politics, and many of the least forgivable phenomena of pop culture have made him one of the most popular humorists and commentators of our time. In Closing Time, Queenan turns his sights on a more serious and personal topic: his childhood in a Philadelphia housing project in the early 1960s. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Closing Time recounts Queenan's Irish Catholic upbringing in a family dominated by his erratic father, a violent yet oddly charming emotional terrorist whose alcoholism fuels a limitless torrent of self-pity, railing, destruction, and late-night chats with the Lord Himself. With the help of a series of mentors and surrogate fathers, and armed with his own furious love of books and music, Joe begins the long flight away from the dismal confines of his neighborhood--with a brief misbegotten stop at a seminary--and into the wider world. Queenan's unforgettable account of the damage done to children by parents without futures and of the grace children find to move beyond these experiences will appeal to fans of Augusten Burroughs and Mary Karr, and will take its place as an autobiography in the classic American tradition.

Full Product Details

9798200121229

Table of Contents

Reviews

An ambitious memoir.... Optimally engrossing, thanks to Queenan's gift for storytelling and acidic humor.-- ""The Philadelphia Inquirer""

"An ambitious memoir.... Optimally engrossing, thanks to Queenan's gift for storytelling and acidic humor.-- ""The Philadelphia Inquirer"""

Author Information

Joe Queenan is the author of nine books, including Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler, True Believers, and If You're Talking to Me, Your Career Must Be in Trouble. A regular contributor to the New York Times, his writing has also been featured in Time, Newsweek, GQ, Esquire, People, Forbes, and Rolling Stone, among others. He is a frequent guest on network talk shows and has hosted radio programs for the BBC. He lives in Tarrytown, New York. Johnny Heller, winner of numerous Earphones and Audie Awards, was named a ""Golden Voice"" by AudioFile magazine in 2019. He has been a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award winner from 2008 through 2013 and he has been named a top voice of 2008 and 2009 and selected as one of the Top 50 Narrators of the Twentieth Century by AudioFile magazine. Johnny Heller, winner of numerous Earphones and Audie Awards, was named a ""Golden Voice"" by AudioFile magazine in 2019. He has been a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award winner from 2008 through 2013 and he has been named a top voice of 2008 and 2009 and selected as one of the Top 50 Narrators of the Twentieth Century by AudioFile magazine.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available