The foreword to this rollicking memoir about growing up in New Jersey should not be skipped. There, Buckley, a screenwriter (How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days) and novelist (The Parker Grey Show), successfully makes a case for her book by eliciting one of those deeply familiar truths that's always in mind but never uttered: the largest factor shaping inhabitants of the state is their desire to escape it. While Buckley had to cope as a child with some of the overarching conditions faced by all Garden State children—monotonous suburban landscape, tightly held class divisions, and schools collapsing into anomie—she also had to navigate her way through the morphing tangle of home and family, a much more singular experience. Buckley has two—and, later, three—adopted Korean siblings and two new stepfamilies on either side of the marital divide, including Jewish grandparents, a runaway teenage stepsister, and her father's new wife, with whom Buckley plays competitive games of silence. The humor of her journey, which she shares in blunt, honest language, will make her memoir an all-night reading experience for even the most disciplined reader. Recommended.
—Maria Kochis
Overview