A review by kkilburn
The End of the World as We Know It: Scenes from a Life by Robert Goolrick

5.0

I love this memoir. It is both the story of one man's specific life and a portrait of Virginia culture in the 1950s and 1960s. Both stories are brilliantly told and both are compelling. And, although Goolrick suffered more than a child should, I didn't find the book too painful or depressing to enjoy. Yes, he tells his story honestly and without holding back the awful things that happened to him. But he is equally honest about the people and places he loves, and tells his story with a precisely calibrated degree of compassion and humor. His prose, of course, is amazing throughout.

This story touched me deeply and gave me new insights into my own parents and my relationship with them. It is not light beach reading, but it is a wonderful book that I recommend without reservation - especially to others whose parents were part of the middle-class "cocktail culture" of the 1950s and 1960s.