Book description
By turns hilarious and heartbreaking,
Closing Time
recounts Joe Queenan’s Irish Catholic upbringing in a family dominated
by his erratic father, a violent yet oddly charming emotional terrorist
whose alcoholism fuels a limitless torrent of self-pity, railing,
destruction, and late-night chats with the Lord Himself. With the help
of a series of mentors and surrogate fathers, and armed with his own
furious love of books and music, Joe begins the long flight away from
the dismal confines of his neighbourhood - with a brief misbegotten stop
at a seminary - and into the wider world.
Closing Time
is an unforgettable account of the damage done to children by parents
without futures and of the grace children find to move beyond these
experiences.
‘Closing Time
is unmistakably a tale of triumph, vindication and revenge . . . [an]
enlightening account of the ways in which we are all, to some extent,
casualties of our own childhoods.’ Sarah Churchwell, Guardian
‘A brutally executed coming-of-age story’ Esquire
‘Will have readers crying tears of both sorrow and hilarity’
Booklist
Joe Queenan writes about movies and music for the Guardian
and is a regular contributor to Nightwaves
. His work appears frequently in the New York Times
, the Los Angeles Times
, the Wall Street Journal
, Barron's
, Forbes
, Golf Digest
, and many other publications. He has appeared on Newsnight
and Front Row
; formerly presented Postcard from Gotham
; and can regularly be heard on BBC Radio 4.
He is the author of seven previous books, two collections of articles,
and an anthology of the world's foremost malicious literature.
