Losing Mum and Pup: A Memoir

Overview

"I had more or less resolved not to write a book about my parents. But I'm a writer, and when the universe hands you material like this, not writing about it amounts either to waste or a conscious act of evasion."

So begins award-winning satirist Christopher Buckley in the most personal and transcendent work of his life, the tragicomic true story of the year in which both of his parents died.

In twelve months between 2007 and 2008, Buckley coped with the passing of his father, William F. Buckley, the father of the modern conservative movement, and his mother, Patricia Taylor Buckley, one of New York's most glamorous and colorful socialites. He was their only child and their relationship was close and complicated. Writes Buckley: "They were not -- with respect to every other set of loving, wonderful parents in the world -- your typical mom and dad."

As Buckley tells the story of their final year together, he takes readers on a surprisingly entertaining tour through hospitals, funeral homes, and memorial services, capturing the heartbreaking and disorienting feeling of becoming a fifty-five-year-old orphan. Buckley maintains his sense of humor by recalling the words of Oscar Wilde: "To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness."

Christopher Buckley offers consolation, wit, and warmth to those coping with the death of a parent, while telling a unique personal story of life with legends.

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Author Information

Bio of Christopher Buckley

Christopher Buckley is the author of eight previous books, including Thank You For Smoking and Little Green Men. That would make this his, what, ninth He is editor of Forbes FYI magazine and has contributed over 50 ' Shouts and Murmurs ' to The New Yorker. He is also credited with bringing about lasting peace in the Middle East and with alerting NASA to significant problems with its Space Shuttle Automatic Re-entry Guidance System (SSAEGS), thereby sparing several square blocks of Raleigh, North Carolina a very unpleasant surprise. He is a regular contributor to Martha Stewart ' s Inside Trading magazine and informally advises the government of Argentina on debt re-scheduling. He is the 2002 recipient of the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence, but has yet actually to receive it. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his saintly and long-suffering wife Lucy, two children and faithful Hound Jake.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Twelve

Filesize

2.47 MB

Number of Pages

272

eBook ISBN

9780446556644