Published by
ALGONQUIN BOOKS OF CHAPEL HILL
Post Office Box 2225
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225
a division of
WORKMAN PUBLISHING
225 Varick Street
New York, New York 10014
© 2007 by Robert Goolrick. All rights reserved.
First paperback edition, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, April 2008.
Originally published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill in 2007.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
eISBN 978-1-56512-635-0
Praise for The End of the World as We Know It
“Searing. . . . It stays with you. . . . [Goolrick is] a gifted writer with a memorable account of his terribly flawed family.”
—USA Today
“Reads like a novel. . . . [Goolrick] tells a story which is fascinating, if terribly sad, but which is lightened by unexpected moments of humor. . . . And be forewarned, no one I know has finished this book with dry eyes.”
—Nancy Pearl, commentator for NPR’s Morning Edition
“Unnerving, elegantly crafted. . . . Morbidly funny.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Clear, forceful. . . . An exquisite memoir that everyone should read.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A courageous and successful work.”
—People
“Anecdotes of captivating vitality. . . . The End of the World as We Know It is barbed and canny, with a sharp eye for the infliction of pain.”
—The New York Times
“Indelible. . . . A devastatingly shrewd no-nonsense description of mid-20th century Southern mores and manners that can rank with the work of Walker Percy or Peter Taylor.”
—Newsweek.com
“Magnificent. Hypnotically candid and beautifully written. . . . Singular.”
—Haven Kimmel, author of A Girl Named Zippy
“A devastating debut. . . . Worthy of William Styron and Flannery O’Connor. . . . Goolrick is clearly a victim of his parents’ brutal abuse, but he has broken out of the categories of ‘victim’ and ‘survivor’ to become a powerful truth-teller.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred
“Searing. . . . Heartbreakingly intimate. . . . Breathtaking honesty.”
—Richmond Times-Dispatch
“[A] blistering family memoir.”
—Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“Robert Goolrick is a huge, shining talent.”
—Martin Clark, author of Plain Heathen Mischief
“Brilliant. . . . A brief yet powerful record of long familial dys-function.”
—The Raleigh News & Observer
“Sharp, searing. . . . The events of The End of the World as We Know It jump off the page with unforgettable vitality. . . . It reminds readers why one man’s unflinching truth still matters, still demands the printed page.”
—Bookslut.com
“Raw, impassioned, terrifying. . . . To say that it’s the story of life in an alcoholic household in Virginia would be like calling A Streetcar Named Desire a play about a lonely woman. It catches the premise but not the development or the dramatic power.”
—Palm Beach Post
“A brave, haunting, riveting book.”
—Lee Smith, author of On Agate Hill
“Beautifully written, the story itself is at once compelling and repellent.”
—The Southern Pines (NC) Pilot
“A masterful blend of comedy and tragedy [that] is disturbing perhaps in direct proportion to how beautifully it is written.”
—Richmond (VA) Style Weekly
“A haunting story.”
—The Emporia Gazette
“Witty, wise and revelatory.”
—Pawling (NY) News Chronicle
“With devastating honesty and razor-sharp wit, Goolrick looks back with love and anger at the parents who both created his world and destroyed it.”
—Virginia Living
“Difficult to put down. . . . Simple but vivid.”
—Popmatters.com
“A quick, careening read, urged on by the memoirist’s inherent promise to unveil the secrets of his subject.”
—Rain Taxi
“A moving, unflinchingly rendered story of how the past can haunt a life.”
—Publishers Weekly
The End of the World as We Know It: Scenes From a Life Page 20