The End of the World as We Know It by Robert Goolrick

As Lee Smith (author of On Agate Hill) observed, 'Alcohol may be the real villain in this pain-permeated, exquisitely written memoir of a Virginia childhood-but it is also filled with absolutely dead-on social commentary of this very particular time and place. With devastating honesty and razor-sharp wit, he looks back with love, and with anger, at the parents who both created his world and destroyed it. Over time, the secret grew so big it threatened to rip the world apart. As Goolrick grew to be a man, his childhood held memories that would not let go, memories that held a secret that followed him wherever he went, defining and directing his days. In The End of the World as We Know It, the author takes us back to the seemingly idyllic world his father and mother created in their home in a small Southern college town, a world of gentle men and lovely ladies and cocktails and party dresses-a world being eroded by a family history of alcoholism. In the Goolrick home there was a law: Never talk about the family in the outside world, never reveal the slightest crack in the facade. In the tradition of Mary Karr's The Liars' Club and Rick Bragg's All Over but the Shoutin', Robert Goolrick has crafted a classic memoir of childhood and the secrets hidden in a heart that can't forget. As author Lee Smith, who knew this world and this family, observed, 'Alcohol may be the real villain in this pain-permeated, exquisitely written memoir of childhood-but it is also filled with absolutely dead-on social commentary of this very particular time and place.

Beautifully written, often humorous, sometimes sweet, ultimately shocking, this is a son's story of looking back with both love and anger at the parents who gave him life and then robbed him of it, who created his world and then destroyed it. It is through the eyes of that boy-a grown man now, revisiting that time-that we see this seemingly serene world and watch as it slowly comes completely and irrevocably undone. But behind the facade this family had created lurked secrets so dark, so painful for this one little boy, that his life would never be the same. Lineage, tradition, making the right impression-these were matters of great importance, especially to the mother. To all appearances, their life seemed ideal.

They gave parties, hosted picnics, went to church-just like their neighbors. They lived on a sunny street in a small college town nestled neatly in a leafy valley. They were parents to three bright, smiling children: two boys and a girl. The father was a respected professor, the mother a witty and elegant lady, someone everyone loved. For one little boy, however, life had become anything but 'normal.' To all appearances, he and his family lived an almost idyllic life. A few years before, a noble war had been won, and now life had returned to normal. It was the 1950s, a time of calm, a time when all things were new and everything seemed possible.

The End of the World as We Know It by Robert Goolrick