Susan Gregory Thomas is a journalist and the author of Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds. Formerly a senior editor at U.S. News & World Report and co-host of public television s Digital Duo, she has also written for Time, The Washington Post, and Glamour, among others. She lives in Brooklyn with her family."
If you've been through the pain of a divorce or watched one at
close range, you may recognize emotions here that you've never seen
written down anywhere else .Thomas' deeply felt prose and
pitilessly intelligent self-analysis raise her story to something
on the order of a generational anthem (which, as Gen X enters
middle age, it sorely needs).
--Time
By turns hilarious and heartbreaking .As profound as it is
rollickingly funny .What sets Susan Gregory Thomas In Spite of
Everything apart from other tales of charred families is the
propulsive force of her writing, and her effort to connect her
parents divorce, and later her own, to a larger generational
narrative .If you ve ever thought about getting married, or
wondered about how best to raise children, real or hypothetical, or
had parents, put In Spite of Everything on your list.
--Slate
A lively narrative [sprinkled] with broadening references to
literature, religion, pop culture, and statistics .Let s face it:
It s fascinating to watch a marriage unravel .Happily for us,
[Thomas s] pain and missteps, and the exploration and enlightenment
they provoke, make for a page-turning saga.
--Elle
Razor-sharp .If Generation X is not unique in suffering; its
particular suffering is unique, and Thomas provides an insightful,
well-researched, sometimes funny and often harrowing view of
it.
--San Francisco Chronicle
Raw and courageous....A memoir that speaks intimately, and with
honesty, for an entire generation that needed to be heard.
--Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Raw, funny, searingly honest and electrifyingly intelligent. . . As
a field guide to the beat-up, busted heart of Generation X, it s
damn near definitive. Thomas solves the mystery of her devastating
divorce and the emotional catastrophe that defines a generation.
Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians
This smart and emotionally mighty memoir will show you how every
family of divorce is unhappy in ways we can all relate to, learn
from, cry about, and (after reading such a great book) transcend.
Sad and funny, In Spite of Everything is the first book to dissect,
with scientific definitiveness, the Busted-Marriage Generation. It
also tells a very moving personal story with real beauty. Darin
Strauss, author of Half a Life
At once a literate and poignant memoir and incisive journalistic
illumination of the cult of domestic consumption, In Spite of
Everything is a remarkable and moving study of an American
generation's uneasy search for home. Wells Tower, author of
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
Honest, riveting and illuminating . . . An indelible portrait, not
only of a family, but of an entire generation shaped by
loneliness.Breathtakingly beautiful from start to finish. Lisa
Dierbeck, author of One Pill Makes You Smaller
This book is brave, startling, profoundly moving, and I could not
put it down. Joanna Hershon, author of Swimming
In In Spite of Everything, Susan Gregory Thomas goes way beyond
American pop culture s cute, run-of-the-mill bromides about
marriage and parenting and gives us a work that's shot through with
a stark and clarifying light of honesty. It is an inspiring book
and an often uproariously funny one, too. In Spite of
Everythingestablishes Susan Gregory Thomas as one of the most
important new voices in American writing. Jeff Gordinier, author of
X Saves the World
Engrossing . . . A deeply moving and personal tale of divorce,
love, motherhood, and what makes us who we are. Marian Fontana,
author of A Widow s Walk
Harrowing, hilarious, and profoundly wise . . . [In Spite of
Everything] is the work of a supreme talent and an emotional
daredevil, a woman courageous enough to reveal every scar that
lines her heart. Brendan I. Koerner, author of Now the Hell Will
Start
As a memoir, In Spite of Everything is both raw and smart; as a
generational analysis, it is spot on culturally, economically and
psychologically. This is an engaging and fast-paced memoir . . .
and a generational portrait for those who refuse to be categorized.
Lisa Chamberlain, author of Slackonomics
In Spite of Everythingis a profound emotional history of the last
forty years.Susan Gregory Thomas is the expert on Generation X s
emotional fallout. All recoveringlatchkey kidsshould read this
book. Ada Calhoun, author of Instinctive Parenting"
"If you've been through the pain of a divorce or watched one at
close range, you may recognize emotions here that you've never seen
written down anywhere else....Thomas' deeply felt prose and
pitilessly intelligent self-analysis raise her story to something
on the order of a generational anthem (which, as Gen X enters
middle age, it sorely needs)."
--"Time"
"By turns hilarious and heartbreaking....As profound as it is
rollickingly funny....What sets Susan Gregory Thomas' "In Spite of
Everything" apart from other tales of charred families is the
propulsive force of her writing, and her effort to connect her
parents' divorce, and later her own, to a larger generational
narrative....If you've ever thought about getting married, or
wondered about how best to raise children, real or hypothetical, or
had parents, put "In Spite of Everything" on your list."
--"Slate "
"A lively narrative...[sprinkled] with broadening references to
literature, religion, pop culture, and statistics....Let's face it:
It's fascinating to watch a marriage unravel....Happily for us,
[Thomas's] pain and missteps, and the exploration and enlightenment
they provoke, make for a page-turning saga."
--"Elle"
" "
"Razor-sharp....If Generation X is not unique in suffering; its
particular suffering is unique, and Thomas provides an insightful,
well-researched, sometimes funny and often harrowing view of
it."
--"San Francisco Chronicle"
" "
"Raw and courageous....A memoir that speaks intimately, and with
honesty, for an entire generation that needed to be heard."
--"Minneapolis Star-Tribune"
"Raw, funny, searingly honest and electrifyingly intelligent . . .
As a field guide to the beat-up, busted heart of Generation X, it's
damn near definitive. Thomas solves the mystery of her devastating
divorce--and the emotional catastrophe that defines a
generation."--Lev Grossman, author of "The Magicians"
"This smart and emotionally mighty memoir will""sho
"Raw, funny, searingly honest and electrifyingly intelligent . . .
As a field guide to the beat-up, busted heart of Generation X, it's
damn near definitive. Thomas solves the mystery of her devastating
divorce--and the emotional catastrophe that defines a
generation."--Lev Grossman, author of "The Magicians"
"This smart and emotionally mighty memoir will""show you how every
family of divorce is unhappy in ways we can all relate to, learn
from, cry about, and (after reading such a great book) transcend.
Sad and funny, "In Spite of Everything "is the first book to
dissect, with scientific definitiveness, the Busted-Marriage
Generation. It also tells a very moving personal story with real
beauty."--Darin Strauss, author of "Half a Life"
"At once a literate and poignant memoir and incisive journalistic
illumination of the cult of domestic consumption, "In Spite of
Everything" is a remarkable and moving study of an American
generation's uneasy search for home."--Wells To
"Susan Gregory Thomas's extraordinary experiences--first as a child
of divorce, then a young mother, and finally a shellshocked
divorcee herself--are rendered all the more powerful by her even
more extraordinary voice. In "In Spite of Everything," Thomas
doesn't just share her battles, victories and epiphanies along the
way. She whisks you into the thick of them with wisdom, humor and
eloquence; then deftly puts them into a journalistic context for
her entire generation. This is far more than a memoir: if you've
ever been married, divorced, a parent or a child, it is a pure
revelation."
--Jennifer Cody Epstein, author of "The Painter from Shanghai
"
""In Spite of Everything" is raw, funny, searingly honest and
electrifyingly intelligent. As a field guide to the beat-up, busted
heart of Generation X, it's damn near definitive. Thomas solves the
mystery of her devastating divorce, and in the process figures out
what happened to all the rest of us too: an emotional catastroph
Ask a Question About this Product More... |