Dead End Gene Pool: A Memoir
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- ISBN13: 9781592405268
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
In the tradition of Sean Wilsey’s Oh The Glory of It All and Augusten Burrough’s Running With Scissors, the fantastic-fantastic-fantastic-fantastic granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt gives readers a grand tour of the world of wealth and WASPish peculiarity, in her irreverent and darkly humorous memoir.
For generations the Burdens were one of the wealthiest families in New York, thanks to the inherited chance of Cornelius “The Commodore” Vanderbilt. By 1955, the year of Wendy’s birth, the Burden’s had become a clan of overfunded, odd and brainy, steadfastly chauvinistic, and ultimately doomed bluebloods on the verge of financial and moral decline-and were rarely seen not holding a drink. In Dead End Gene Pool, Wendy invites readers to meet her tragically flawed family tree, including an uncle with a fondness for Hitler, a grandfather who believes you can never have enough household staff, and a remarkably flatulent grandmother.
At the heart of the tale is Wendy’s glamorous and aloof mother who, after her spouse’s suicide, travels the world in search of the perfect sea and ski tan, leaving her three children in the care of a chain- smoking Scottish nanny, Fifth Avenue grandparents, and an assorted cast of long-suffering household servants (who Wendy and her brothers like to terrorize). Rife with humor, heartbreak, family tree intrigue, and booze, Dead End Gene Pool offers a glimpse into the fascinating world of ancient money and gives truth to an ancient maxim: The rich are different.
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If you liked Frank McCords classic memoir “Angelas Ashes”, you will like Wendy Burdens “Dead End Gene Pool”, also destined to be a classic. Its that excellent. Burden is a terrific new writer, whose style combines clear eyed observation with a wit that resembles the best of Molly Ivins and George Carlin. Beginning with the books Dedication: “To My Mother Goddammit”, Burden turns on the seat belt sign, and prepares you for a turbulent but spell binding ride through a fascinating life told by a masterful storyteller.
Where McCords tale was about a life using rags for diapers, and scavenging for chunks of coal, Burdens tale is about a life on the exact opposite edge of the spectrum. As a gene pool passenger on the once luxurious but ultimately broken-down Vanderbilt bus, Burden, as young girl, was never permitted to ride up front on that bus. That space, of course, was modest only for males . Still, even as a girl in this clan, her life was not about rags and chunks of roadside coal. As a replacement for, she rode on the Concord, where on one trip her horny seat mate was a legendary French octogenarian wearing “a Rolex the size of a sea turtle”.
Burden develops the characters in her life with a brilliant mixture of humor and depth. Her decaying Grandfather, once accomplished, customarily arose from bed “like a wet rag fired from a lob shot” toward his bottle of Wild Turkey. Burdens Grandmother, notwithstanding a strict sense of decorum and entitlement, never seemed bothered by her own irrepressibly audible flatulence.
On the periphery of all these complex characters was Burdens Mother, perhaps the most complex of all. After the suicide death of Burdens Father, Burdens Mom mailed in, by proxy, from exotic, sunny places, her motherly like. A touching undercurrent in the book is Burdens attempt to come to terms with that relationship, while extant the chauffeured dysfunction going on around her. Burdens tale, like McCords, is a survivors tale, and an equally fantastic read about being born around the edges.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
If you liked Frank McCords classic memoir “Angelas Ashes”, you will like Wendy Burdens “Dead End Gene Pool”, also destined to be a classic. Its that excellent. Burden is a terrific new writer, whose style combines clear eyed observation with a wit that resembles the best of Molly Ivins and George Carlin. Beginning with the books Dedication: “To My Mother Goddammit”, Burden turns on the seat belt sign, and prepares you for a turbulent but spell binding ride through a fascinating life told by a masterful storyteller.
Where McCords tale was about a life using rags for diapers, and scavenging for chunks of coal, Burdens tale is about a life on the exact opposite edge of the spectrum. As a gene pool passenger on the once luxurious but ultimately broken-down Vanderbilt bus, Burden, as young girl, was never permitted to ride up front on that bus. That space, of course, was modest only for males . Still, even as a girl in this clan, her life was not about rags and chunks of roadside coal. As a replacement for, she rode on the Concord, where on one trip her horny seat mate was a legendary French octogenarian wearing “a Rolex the size of a sea turtle”.
Burden develops the characters in her life with a brilliant mixture of humor and depth. Her decaying Grandfather, once accomplished, customarily arose from bed “like a wet rag fired from a lob shot” toward his bottle of Wild Turkey. Burdens Grandmother, notwithstanding a strict sense of decorum and entitlement, never seemed bothered by her own irrepressibly audible flatulence.
On the periphery of all these complex characters was Burdens Mother, perhaps the most complex of all. After the suicide death of Burdens Father, Burdens Mom mailed in, by proxy, from exotic, sunny places, her motherly like. A touching undercurrent in the book is Burdens attempt to come to terms with that relationship, while extant the chauffeured dysfunction going on around her. Burdens tale, like McCords, is a survivors tale, and an equally fantastic read about being born around the edges.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
but I really didn’t. Most of the characters were alcoholic ne’er-do-wells, backed by endless Vanderbilt family tree money, who basically seemed to waste their lives in ritzy places like Hobe Sound and Bar Harbor and New York City’s Upper East Side. I have read plenty of life tale of unlikable people who have captured my interest and I don’t have a “likability” rating of the books I read. No, I was basically offended – which doesn’t regularly take place to me – by the sheer wastefulness of the lives of most of Burden’s family tree, both immediate and past generations.
Burden is a excellent enough writer to tell her tale in an appealing manner. And she did. The reviews I had read about the book all referred to its humor. I really didn’t find anything even slightly humorous about this bunch. Burden and her two brothers have all reached adulthood, and all seem to have establish varying degrees of happiness, despite seeming to have received a double dose of alcoholic and depressive genes from both sides. But what a waste…
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
I noticed another reviewer commented on the book not being well-written, which is fake. It’s well-written, extremely entertaining and provides a lovely portrait of some fascinating people. Yes, right, if you reflect people who drink or take drugs or are shallow are horrible and you despise them, clearly, this is the incorrect book for you. If you’re a small more open-minded or at least don’t take yourself that seriously, you will really delight in this. It’s a fascinating rollicking tale of the end of family tree wealth from the perspective of a child who comes to know her world just as you come to know it as the reader. I personally like tales of appealing people doing entertaining things – and by appealing and entertaining I mean different. It’s positively rejuvenating to read about people who have structured days with cooks and maids and have cars delivered and just live in a delightfully appealing world.
I will say that I would have liked a longer book. It’s a very simple read, very compelling and I just wanted to read more. It skips around at parts so you miss a lot of time and correlated information. Obviously, it’s hard with a memoir that involves family tree to strike that balance between telling your tale and offending your family tree – my guess is that’s why there isn’t more.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
The best part of the whole entire book was the title! What a waste of excellent paper! Please!!! Don’t waste your time or money on this mess! I finished reading it because I kept hoping that something would take place or that it would get better. It never did. In fact, it really got worse.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5