Darst's sense of humor is very bleak, and somewhat raunchy, so if you're squeamish, skip it.

I didn't really "like" the speaker and her story wasn't as outrageous as I think she wanted it to be. With that said, it is well-written and really readable. I would recommend. She tells an interesting story.

Perhaps 3.5 stars. There are parts I really liked about this book, especially as it moved toward a sad, meaningful conclusion. I found this title on a list of "comedic memoirs by women," and since my favorite memoir was on that list (Tina Fey's Bossypants), I thought I'd read this one. Perhaps I was hoping for another Bossypants. Maybe I unfairly weighed the narrative against Tina Fey's. At any rate, I don't regret reading it, and found some parts funny, but overall, it's not Bossypants, and that made me sad.

Meh...

A pet peeve - any use of "could care less" diminishes my opinion of an author (not to mention editor), and it appears in this book twice. Otherwsie, the writing was good. It was fast-paced and interesting. But the tone was overly negative and snarky. I felt that the story was similar to "The Glass Castle," but it lacked something - perhaps likability of the narrator? - that would have made it better.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads and I'm very sorry it took me far too long to read it. My taking so long to read this book was in no way a reflection on the quality of the book or the author's writing. It's simply a reflection of my busy schedule and the mounds, and mounds of books I have yet to read.

That being said, I really liked this book. Jeanne is hilarious and I really enjoyed reading about her life. Her writing style is fantastic. For the first time, I read a memoir and actually came out feeling like I knew the person. I would, and have already, suggest that people read this book; especially if one has a good sense of humor.

Great read!

Any memoir in which the writer gives her own sister crabs is OK in my book. PLEASE READ TO FIND OUT MORE.

I won this book through the FirstReads program on goodreads.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found myself drawn from one emotion to the next as I read about Jeanne Darst's life from childhood to adulthood. For reader's who enjoyed reading Wall's "Glass Castle" or either of the Wolff brothers' memoirs of their childhood with alcoholic. depressive and dysfunctional family-life, this book resonates in much the same way. There are moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity, as well as moments that will make you cringe. The author's language and voice evolve, as you read, bringing an age-based sense of reality and sequence to the narration.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable, voyeuristic read.

The tale of a family affected by alcoholism and a doomed literary career Fiction Ruined My Family isn't quite your usual memoir. With tales of severe alcoholism, unique family members and personal experiences it has a lot of fun with topics that are usually pretty tinged with anger and sadness.

This is probably one of the more original memoirs you'll find not because it differs much in its subject matter so much as that the author is able to spend most of the book poking fun at the bizarre and often embarrassing moments both she and her family members go through over the years. While I'm not sure that Darst managed to reach too many major conclusions about her family or her own life by the end of the book she does manage to make the trip pretty fun.

The fiction that ruined Jeanne Darst's family isn't her father's novel or his obsession with F. Scott Fitzgerald. The fictions that bring her parents down are the lies they tell themselves. Her father is convinced that literary success is just around the corner, and that it's fine to let his family starve in the meantime. Her alcoholic mother thinks she's still a debutante; therefore, getting a job herself is out of the question. So Jeanne's not-small task as writer and alcoholic is (like everyone's) to not become her parents--specifically, to be honest about her struggles, even if that means acknowledging her affinity for doing things the hard way.

It took a while for this book to come into focus for me, but I think that's to its credit. There's an arc here, built from a careful mosaic of (often LOL-worthy) anecdotes. Darst has a performance background, and I feel like I would have liked hearing her read passages out loud. She captures her parents' and sisters' voices hilariously, while finding her own.