Camberwell, VIC, Australia: Viking/Penguin, 2005. 482pp. Book clean, square. Spine firm, in-production surface striation to same. Leaves clean, albeit slightly tanned. Illustrated card wrapper very good. "When Sean, the kind of child who sings songs to sick flowers, turns nine years old, his father divorces his mother and marries her best friend. Sean's life blows apart . . . A multiplicity of settings and kaleidoscopic mix of preoccupations - sex, the 80s, Russia, jet helicopters, seismic upheaval, the misery of boarding schools, Middle Earth, skinheads, home improvement, suicide, the joy of skateboarding, massage, and eventual salvation . . . " Book weight approx. 640g. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Second Impression.. Softcover. Very Good.

Synopsis

"In the beginning we were happy. And we were always excessive. So in the beginning we were happy to excess." With these opening lines Sean Wilsey takes us on an exhilarating tour of life in the strangest, wealthiest, and most grandiose of families. Sean's blond-bombshell mother (one of the thinly veiled characters in Armistead Maupin's bestselling Tales of the City ) is a 1980s society-page staple, regularly entertaining Black Panthers and movie stars in her marble and glass penthouse, "eight hundred feet in the air above San Francisco; an apartment at the top of a building at the top of a hill: full of light, full of voices, full of windows full of water and bridges and hills." His enigmatic father uses a jet helicopter to drop Sean off at the video arcade and lectures his son on proper hygiene in public restrooms, "You should wash your hands first, before you use the urinal. Not after. Your penis isn't dirty. But your hands are." When Sean, "the kind of child who sings songs to sick flowers," turns nine years old, his father divorces his mother and marries her best friend. Sean's life blows apart. His mother first invites him to commit suicide with her, then has a "vision" of salvation that requires packing her Louis Vuitton luggage and traveling the globe, a retinue of multiracial children in tow. Her goal: peace on earth (and a Nobel Prize). Sean meets Indira Gandhi, Helmut Kohl, Menachem Begin, and the pope, hoping each one might come back to San Francisco and persuade his father to rejoin the family. Instead, Sean is pushed out of San Francisco and sent spiraling through five high schools, till he finally lands at an unorthodox reform school cum "therapeutic community," in Italy. With its multiplicity of settings and kaleidoscopic mix of preoccupations-sex, Russia, jet helicopters, seismic upheaval, boarding schools, Middle Earth, skinheads, home improvement, suicide, skateboarding, Sovietology, public transportation, massage, Christian fundamentalism, dogs, Texas, global thermonuclear war, truth, evil, masturbation, hope, Bethlehem, CT, eventual salvation (abridged list)— Oh the Glory of It All is memoir as bildungsroman as explosion.

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Details

Bookseller: Diversity Books, IOBA (AU)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 010709
Title: OH THE GLORY OF IT ALL
Author: Wilsey, Sean
Format/Binding: Paperback
Book Condition: Used - Very Good
Edition: Second Impression.
ISBN 10: 0670916102
ISBN 13: 9780670916108
Publisher: Viking/Penguin
Place of Publication: Camberwell, VIC, Australia
Date Published: 2005
Keywords: AUTOBIOGRAPHY, SEAN WILSEY, MEMOIR

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Diversity Books, IOBA

Diversity Books - Terms of Sale: All PRICES quoted are in Australian DOLLARS. Books may be returned within seven days of receipt if found to be incorrectly described. Australian buyers: We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and direct deposit to Commonwealth Bank account. International buyers: We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express. International buyers have the choice of FAST AIRMAIL [approx.3-10 business days, depending on destination]or STANDARD AIRMAIL [approx. 10-25 business days, depending on destination] Please EMAIL regarding ARTICLE FOR SALE, AVAILABILITY, PAYMENT and POSTAGE/HANDLING OPTIONS.

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Diversity Books, IOBA

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Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Leaves: Very generally, "leaves" refers to the pages of a book, as in the common phrase, "loose-leaf pages." A leaf is a single sheet...
Spine: The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....