Dead End Gene Pool: A Memoir
- ISBN-10
- 1101186186
- ISBN-13
- 9781101186183
- Category
- Biography & Autobiography
- Pages
- 288
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2010-04-01
- Publisher
- Penguin
- Author
- Wendy Burden
Description
In the tradition of Sean Wilsey's Oh The Glory of It All and Augusten Burrough's Running With Scissors, the great-great-great granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt gives readers a grand tour of the world of wealth and WASPish peculiarity, in her irreverent and darkly humorous memoir. For generations the Burdens were one of the wealthiest families in New York, thanks to the inherited fortune of Cornelius "The Commodore" Vanderbilt. By 1955, the year of Wendy's birth, the Burden's had become a clan of overfunded, quirky and brainy, steadfastly chauvinistic, and ultimately doomed bluebloods on the verge of financial and moral decline-and were rarely seen not holding a drink. In Dead End Gene Pool, Wendy invites readers to meet her tragically flawed family, including an uncle with a fondness for Hitler, a grandfather who believes you can never have enough household staff, and a remarkably flatulent grandmother. At the heart of the story is Wendy's glamorous and aloof mother who, after her husband's suicide, travels the world in search of the perfect sea and ski tan, leaving her three children in the care of a chain- smoking Scottish nanny, Fifth Avenue grandparents, and an assorted cast of long-suffering household servants (who Wendy and her brothers love to terrorize). Rife with humor, heartbreak, family intrigue, and booze, Dead End Gene Pool offers a glimpse into the fascinating world of old money and gives truth to an old maxim: The rich are different.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Zombies of the Gene Pool
By Sharyn McCrumbDetective Jay Omega returns in an eagerly awaited second sci-fi mystery adventure that happily marks his hardcover debut in this or any other galaxy. Sharyn McCrumb, "one of the most...
-
King of Cons: Exposing the Dirty, Rotten Secrets of the Washington Elite and Hollywood Celebrities
By Aaron TonkenNow, the story that shook the industry will finally shatter the façade of Hollywood's philanthropy and Washington's populism, once and for all exposing how empty are the real lifestyles of many of the rich and famous, and what really ...
-
Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats
By Kristen IversenA narrative report by a woman who grew up near the Rocky Flats nuclear weapon facility describes the dark secrets that dominated her childhood, the strange cancers that afflicted her neighbors, her brief employment at Rocky Flats and the ...
-
Oh the Glory of It All
By Sean WilseyAnd 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.
-
Why Not Say What Happened?: A Memoir
By Ivana LowellWhy Not Say What Happened? introduces a dazzling new literary voice and the fascinating story of a tragic and remarkable family.
-
The Modern Book of the Dead: A Revolutionary Perspective on Death, the Soul, and What Really Happens in the Life...
By Ptolemy TompkinsDraws on the teachings of major religious and philosophical traditions to outline a comprehensive "map" of the afterlife that explains that experiences of growth and change continue after death.
-
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek: A Novel
By Kim Michele RichardsonA NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A USA TODAY BESTSELLER A LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER A PBS BOOK PICK The bestselling historical fiction novel from Kim Michele Richardson, this is a novel following Cussy Mary, a packhorse librarian and her ...
-
The Diary of Pelly D
By L.J. AdlingtonSet far in the future and on a distant planet, Pelly D's diary bears witness, through the eyes of a young girl, to the terrifying consequences of genetic classification.
-
Running Out of Time
By Margaret Peterson HaddixJessie lives with her family in the frontier village of Clifton, Indiana, in 1840...or so she believes.
-
Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time
By Ben EhrenreichDesert Notebooks is a vital and necessary chronicle of our past and our present—unflinching, urgent—yet timeless and profound.