In twelve months between 2007 and 2008, Christopher Buckley coped with the passing of his father, William F. Buckley, the father of the modern conservative movement, and his mother, Patricia Taylor Buckley, one of New York's most glamorous and colorful socialites. He was their only child and their relationship was close and complicated. Writes Buckley: "They were not - with respect to every other set of loving, wonderful parents in the world - your typical mom and dad."
As Buckley tells the story of their final year together, he takes listners on a surprisingly entertaining tour through hospitals, funeral homes, and memorial services, capturing the heartbreaking and disorienting feeling of becoming a 55-year-old orphan. Buckley maintains his sense of humor by recalling the words of Oscar Wilde: "To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness."
Just as Calvin Trillin and Joan Didion gave readers solace and insight into the experience of losing a spouse, Christopher Buckley offers consolation, wit, and warmth to those coping with the death of a parent, while telling a unique personal story of life with legends.
Exquisitely written and eloquently read, Christopher Buckley's memoir reflects upon the bittersweet final year of his parents' lives. As is to be expected from a member of one of America's first families of prose, not only does Buckley demonstrate his dexterous knack for turning a phrase, he also recounts many of his famous father, William F. Buckley's, artful witticisms. Thanks to Buckley's wry yet vulnerable narration, this is an example of an audiobook bearing even more resonance than the written word. With superb pacing and an engaging style of storytelling, Buckley resists sentimentalism but occasionally hovers at the brink of revealing the depth of his loss. He finds humor in the most unlikely places--a funeral home, for example--and presents laugh-out-loud imitations of famous voices, such as Henry Kissinger. Delightful. N.M.C. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
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