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Drinking Closer to Home (P.S.)

3.43 of 5 stars 3.43 · rating details · 679 ratings · 132 reviews

They say you can never really go home again. Adult siblings Anna, Portia, and Emery are about to discover just how true that is.

Paperback, 368 pages

Published January 18th 2011 by Harper Perennial (first published December 29th 2010)

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Jul 24, 2012 Sara Strand rated it 4 of 5 stars

Before I get into the review, I will tell you- I loved this book. I loved it because I could relate to it. I think most people would agree that most families are quirky and weird and no family is like the other. My family is just me, my brother, my mom, and my step dad. And I remember growing up knowing my parents were not like the other parents and I remembered thinking how weird they were. My parent's didn't volunteer, they didn't cart me and my friends around wherever we wanted to go, they tr...more Before I get into the review, I will tell you- I loved this book. I loved it because I could relate to it. I think most people would agree that most families are quirky and weird and no family is like the other. My family is just me, my brother, my mom, and my step dad. And I remember growing up knowing my parents were not like the other parents and I remembered thinking how weird they were. My parent's didn't volunteer, they didn't cart me and my friends around wherever we wanted to go, they treated us like mini adults in a sense but laid down the law. We didn't have the deep family discussions- you only came to them if you had a problem and if it wasn't major you figured it out on your own. My brother and I are similar but way different. I'm very nose-in-a-book and studious, sarcastic and giving. He's very athletic, funny, and kind hearted. We get along great and I go to my brother when I have a problem before I go to my mom sometimes. We were raised with the mentality that no matter what- love your sibling because someday it'll be all we have.

So I related to this book in that sense, but also the sense that eventually- your parents will pass away. With my dad's heart attack this year it drove that point home to us- either one of them could go any day. And it brings up childhood memories and you think about the things you'd miss when they leave.

The parents in this book remind me of my own in a way and I loved it. Some of the things they say are things my mom and dad would say. The conversations the siblings had are conversations like I've had with my own brother. It felt like this is the story of what would happen if one of my parents were maybe dying in a hospital.

I loved how you got a glimpse into the childhood of each child and then their present day life. I loved how the author tied it all together before she presented the "secrets" part of it and how it would maybe shape the future of the family. I can't tell you how I felt about the ending without giving it away but when I read it I thought, "yeah... I kind of knew it'd end like this" because in retrospect- the book is written after the ending event. So it makes sense on how it was written now that I know how it ended. That means nothing to you but it's a thought I had afterwards.

What I also admired about this book is how it really drives home the point that so often people say their childhood is the excuse for why they do things, often destructive things, as an adult. And really? It's not an excuse. As an adult you learn how to look at something and say, "Well- that's how they did it, that's how they thought.. but I can and will do better." Just because your parents think a certain way, or do something a certain way, it doesn't mean it's the right way. And as adults you have to figure that out and how to rise above it- how to be a better person.

I highly recommend this book for anybody who's facing the reality that eventually.. your parents will pass away. Anyone who has had a hard time at reconciling their childhood and just saying, "It's ok. No matter what it was... it's in the past and it doesn't shape who I am today." It's a good book and there were parts where I really laughed out loud and some parts that reminded me of a favorite childhood memory of my own. Definitely recommend.(less)

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Mar 26, 2012 Tuck rated it 4 of 5 stars

you can't help laughing with this family novel as the characters are always cracking each other up, even if, or because it's laughing from crying. this is one of many novels about modern, well off, liberal, usa jewish families i have been through lately:
Bee Season
The Free World (well, ok, here the family is BECOMING modern, well off, liberal.....)

Heir to the Glimmering World: A Novel
The Fallback Plan
To the End of the Land (isreal, same difference right?)
Life on Sandpaper
Ghost Lights
drinking clos...more

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Apr 15, 2011 Alison rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was at once appalled and in love with this quirky family!

Anna, Portia and Emery are summoned back home when their mother, Louise, has a massive heart attack. During Louise's time in the hospital recovering, the three children reminisce about their childhood, their odd parents, Buzzy and Louise, their even odder extended family and where the road has taken them.

"It has only been recently that Anna forgave her mother for a litany of crimes Anna had been carrying in her stomach like a knotted sq...more I was at once appalled and in love with this quirky family!

Anna, Portia and Emery are summoned back home when their mother, Louise, has a massive heart attack. During Louise's time in the hospital recovering, the three children reminisce about their childhood, their odd parents, Buzzy and Louise, their even odder extended family and where the road has taken them.

"It has only been recently that Anna forgave her mother for a litany of crimes Anna had been carrying in her stomach like a knotted squid."

As soon as I started reading Drinking Closer to Home, it felt so much like a memoir, I had to look at the copyright page just to make sure that it said "fiction" at the front. At the end of the book, the author interviews her own family, on whom the characters are based. What happens in between is pure magic.

Oh, how I cringed! Oh, how I laughed! Oh, how I felt compelled to turn the pages!

The very things that might make another family miserable are the very things that make this family work. The prolific swearing, the filthy house, and the unabashed drug use made me want to read the pages with my eyes half closed while learning about this crazy family. The humor, the brutal honesty, and the love made me want to want to be a part of it.

There were several scenes in the book that made me laugh out loud. There was one part in the book where we flashback to 1976 and the kids were visiting their grandparents Otto and Billie.

"Emory was hovering nearby, hiding himself from Otto, who had publicly called him Sissy Boy at least three times in the last hour. Emery thought that if only his grandfather could see the singing and dancing extravaganza of the Corny Kids Variety Show, he'd never call Emery a sissy again."

Emery was my favorite character in the book. He was embarrassed by his family, but didn't like being on the outside of things either. His struggle with his identity both in and out of his family moved me deeply.

All of the characters in this book were, in a word, colorful!

If you enjoyed The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, you will fall head over heels backward in love drunk with Drinking Closer to Home by Jessica Anya Blau.

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Feb 24, 2011 Jennifer Rayment rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Good Stuff

* This wasn't my cup of tea guys, but don't let my review affect you too much as she is a fantastic writer, and I have read many fantastic reviews of the book, but I just couldn't get into it
* Bitingly funny at times
* Well written and the story flows nicely told between modern day and flash backs
* Author is outstanding at making you see the character she is describing, I felt like I really knew the characters even if I didn't like them
* A extremely realistic portrayal of many...more

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Feb 22, 2013 Kyle Uniss rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed-on-http-constantlyreadin

http://constantlyreadingkyle.blogspot...

I enjoyed this book, and would recommend it. Especially at $1.99 for my Kindle!

In Drinking Closer to Home, Jessica Anya Blau shows us that dysfunction we get from our parents are only their reactions to the dysfunction they got from their parents. I enjoyed this book, if only because it made me feel like the dysfunction I inherited from my parents isn't nearly as bad as what Buzzy and Louise passed down to their children.

Anna, Portia and Emery are the adu...more

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Jan 24, 2011 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

From my book review blog Rundpinne..."Drinking Closer to Home by Jessica Anya Blau is a book I think one will either really enjoy or not, unfortunately I was in the latter category. The story opens in 1993 California where Louise has suffered from a massive heart attack and her children, Anna, Portia, Emery, along with Emery’s boyfriend, Alejandro, fly back to California and stay with their father, Buzzy, in Buzzy’s and Louise Stein’s new home, Casa del Viento Fuerte. The Stein family is the qui...more

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Jan 13, 2011 Kelly Hager rated it 4 of 5 stars

After Louise has a heart attack, her three grown children come home to see her in the hospital. Anna, the oldest, has always been a "problem child." Portia's husband has just left her and the youngest, Emery, also needs to convince one of his sisters to donate eggs so he and his partner can have a baby. The book grows back and forth in time, showing their childhoods as well as their adult lives.

The characters in this are universal. We all know these people, even if the characters in the book are...more

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Jun 29, 2011 Richard Thomas rated it 5 of 5 stars

(This review was originally published at The Nervous Breakdown.)

A touching, funny, and unflinching look at a dysfunctional family, Drinking Closer to Home (Harper Perennial) by Jessica Anya Blau is a history that many of us may have lived. Hippie parents, competition between siblings, and the growing pains that we all endured: these are the fond memories and nightmares of our youth. What do you do when your mother quits being a mother? When your father grows pot plants in the back yard? When you...more

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Feb 03, 2011 Meg rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sent-for-review, read-in-2011, contemporary-fiction

Jessica Anya Blau’s Drinking Closer To Home, while fast-paced and shocking, is a difficult novel to digest. We’re presented with a group of very disturbed people, but I couldn’t put the book down; I had to know how this family became so eternally messed up. And how they all managed to emerge from that — though not unscathed.

Blau’s focus on family dynamics, marriage and infidelity were what carried the book for me. For having spent more than 300 pages with these people, I never felt like I got a...more Jessica Anya Blau’s Drinking Closer To Home, while fast-paced and shocking, is a difficult novel to digest. We’re presented with a group of very disturbed people, but I couldn’t put the book down; I had to know how this family became so eternally messed up. And how they all managed to emerge from that — though not unscathed.

Blau’s focus on family dynamics, marriage and infidelity were what carried the book for me. For having spent more than 300 pages with these people, I never felt like I got a good sense of any character — but maybe that was the point. Of everyone here, Anna probably enraged me the most. Wanton, disagreeable, surly and destructive, the eldest daughter treated everyone in the family in a cavalier way that made me want to slap her. But if I slapped her, I’d have to hit Louise, too.

Because really, who sucked more than Louise? She’s a “mother,” but we can use the term loosely. She’s selfish. Uncouth. More concerned with creating “art” in the 1960s than parenting her children, all of whom must become self-reliant at a young age. When she “quits” mothering, Portia must carry the slack for her disturbed older sister and confused younger brother. Louise would rather get high and read magazines than care for her kids, and her husband — a lawyer — encourages this. Or, if nothing else, does nothing to stop it. And finances it.

It was enraging.

The “twisted family” trope is nothing new. How many times have we read about screwed-up people who screw up their children? A thousand. And yet, Blau’s novel managed to keep and hold my attention from the first page to the last, probably because of the shocking sexual antics, insane life choices and complicated dynamics happening within its pages. Blurbers comment on the author’s wit and, yes, parts are sort of funny, but it’s mostly in a “Did they really say that?” way. In a “No grandfather could call his granddaughter that” way. A “That’s so disturbing that surely it’s meant to be comical” way.

And that’s not really how I like my books.

That’s not to say that Drinking Closer To Home isn’t a worthwhile read. It’s certainly well-written and engrossing, and if you enjoy examining the bonds of siblings and joining a family on a decades-long jaunt through time? Well, Blau’s novel would certainly entertain you -- and bother you -- for a few days.(less)

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Jan 19, 2011 Staci rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to Staci by: TLC Tour Book

Shelves: tlc-tour-2011, 2011-reads

Well, this will be a short and sweet (maybe not) review...reason being...I just did not care for this book. I found the parents to be narcissistic, neglectful, and frankly, they pissed me off with their behavior. I tried to lighten up and just enjoy this read, but I couldn't. My favorite character and the one that I felt a lot of sympathy for was Emery. He was basically raised by his sisters and really just went about his life. I loved watching him grow into a responsible and loving adult. I wil...more

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Feb 09, 2011 Dorothyanne Brown rated it 3 of 5 stars

Hmm. Not really sure what I felt about this book. The story is about a dysfunctional family and the return of the adult children to the fold after the illness of their mother.
The characters were well-drawn, and I did finish the book, but there wasn't a soul in it that I liked. The family itself seems dysfunctional past the point of reality, but I suppose social services were less intrusive at the time of the young family.
Some of the language was just icky. The whole family refer to affairs as "s...more

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Jan 20, 2011 Sean Beaudoin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Through this very funny and forthright look at an unusual family dynamic (actually far more usual than the family itself imagines), Blau has written a Santa Barbara morality tale. A present-day medical emergency forces three siblings to confront the ways in which their pre-seatbelt and bike helmet 70's upbringing has informed who they've become. The story, told in refreshingly clean prose (there is no overt cleverness to distract--Blau knows her story and its details are more than enough to keep...more

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May 20, 2011 Heather Donald rated it 1 of 5 stars

After reading Glass Castle, Drinking Closer to Home just didn't do it for me. I thought the characters were mean. I thought the author was trying too hard to shock the reader. I found the excessive use of curse words annoying (and trust me, I love to curse!).

Although, the one saving grace for the book was on the second to last page: "Portia is surprised that she has not faded and evaporated with the loss of her mother...She understands suddenly that the stuff that fills her up is not the love o...more

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Feb 19, 2011 Brian rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really love this author, and was extremely pleased that I loved her second book as much as i loved her first. The book centers around an unforgettable family: Buzzy, the father who is often the straight man to the rest of the family's hijinks. Louise, the hippish free thinking mom, Anna, the older sister who is nutty in her own way, Portia, who is DEFINITELY nutty, and the gay son. The characters were painted extremely vividly, and they were super quirky which is what drew me into the book. Th...more

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Mar 24, 2011 Lori rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc-reviewers-copy, fiction

From author

Taste is a funny thing. My taste in novels, for those of you who may not know, tends to run a bit left of centre. I prefer burying myself nose-deep in bizarro, drug-induced, run-on sentenced, experimental fiction. Or inhaling amazing "fly so low under the radar that there is no radar low enough to fly under" indie fiction. Very rarely do I indulge in what I like to call straight-laced, main stream "your mom could totally read this book" fiction.

And yet, when I do indulge in it, more o...more From author

Taste is a funny thing. My taste in novels, for those of you who may not know, tends to run a bit left of centre. I prefer burying myself nose-deep in bizarro, drug-induced, run-on sentenced, experimental fiction. Or inhaling amazing "fly so low under the radar that there is no radar low enough to fly under" indie fiction. Very rarely do I indulge in what I like to call straight-laced, main stream "your mom could totally read this book" fiction.

And yet, when I do indulge in it, more often than not, I find myself thoroughly enjoying it. Of course, it certainly helps when said main stream fiction contains some one of the most dysfunctional cast of characters I have read about in a long, long time.

You've heard of escapism fiction, yes? Books that are marketed as "beach reads" that require no thinking whatsoever and promise to magically whisk you away from your stressful, hectic, crazy life?

Well, Jessica Anya Blau's novel is the complete opposite! Drinking Closer to Home is the type of book you read when you want to escape your boring hum-drum life to be magically whisked into a world where everyone is having affairs, and is addicted to drugs, sex, and drinking. Where your grandparents humiliate you by showing off your soiled underwear, inviting their friends to check out your "tits" and announcing that you are so dumb you had to attend dummy school. Or a world where your parents grow pot in the backyard, and treat your sisters bouts of bulimia and anorexia like they were passing fads. Where your stay at home mother announces that she quits being a mom and teaches you how to care for your siblings, cook, clean, and do laundry. Or where everyone around you appears to have a "Stinky" (family nickname for the people your family members are having an affair with), while your husband has left you for a stinky of his own.

It's the story of going home again and all of the unexpected baggage that brings. It's about coming together as a family and accepting one another, when everything you've put behind you is attempting to bubble back up to the surface.

Doesn't sound like your typical straight-laced, main stream fiction novel, now, does it?

I want to thank author Greg Olear for initially pointing this novel out to me, and to Jessica for reaching out to me and making a copy available for review. I promise that their kindness did not influence my positive review.

Take a peek at the book trailer for Drinking Closer to Home, which I posted on the blog yesterday. And be sure to grab yourself a copy the next time you hit the bookstore. If for nothing else, do it for the dysfunction!

http://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.c...(less)

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Jun 22, 2011 Matthew rated it 3 of 5 stars

I started my summer vacation with this book for two reasons: first, I wanted a break from high-lit (my masters program crippled my fancy for the classics last year), and second, I had three family members recommend this book to me in the same week. They described it as a light and funny read about a family's history. What they neglected to mention was the fact that this book is only a tad better than the typical Nicholas Sparks novel. While there are many charming moments in Blau's novel--she ha...more

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Mar 06, 2011 Patty rated it 4 of 5 stars

Easy read, kept my attention, but it was almost dysfunction overload for me. I kept thinking that maybe this was a true story because several chapters were sending me the 'too crazy not to be true' vibe. The author definitely kept my attention because I wanted to quickly get to the end of this book to see how author let the characters evolve. I would definitely recommend this book to friends, but not to my mom!
ok...i changed my rating because i met the author and found out that this book is pre...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Val Wilkerson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-books-read

Besides having a great name Jessica really painted an
incredible picture of an American family. The mom Louise who
smokes pot, Buzzy the dad, Anne the oldest daughter who has
addictions to drugs & sex, Portia who the family claims goes
to the dummy school and the youngest son Emery who turns out
to be gay. The house is a mess, the couch is covered with bird
shit, the mom spends her days at the nude beach, Anne becomes the
cook of the family while Portia pretty much takes care of Emery.
Despite the m...more

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Oct 24, 2010 Lynda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: netgalley, kindle-already-read

Drinking Closer to Home by Jessica Anya Blau is a wonderful, sweet, poignant, and hilarious novel about family relationships. It's a brutally honest look at a truly dysfunctional family that takes place (in many flashbacks) from the 1970's to the early 1990's. Every character is flawed, but they're some of the most likable, intriguing characters that I've ever come across. I absolutely loved this book! I looked forward to each moment I could spend with this wonderful, crazy, loving family and wa...more

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Nov 26, 2011 Merredith rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1-or-2-stars, smartsies-literature

This book took me a long time (for me) to read because I read a few books in between while I was reading this one. It just didn't capture me too much. I liken it to an independent movie, which are often about not much at all, and then just end. It had sort of a plot... Three grown children return to their parents when their mom has a heart attack, and then the book intersperses with flashbacks from the perspective of different kids about their upbringing or growing up. While growing up, the pare...more

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Jul 14, 2011 Sue rated it 4 of 5 stars

What a delight - I loved this eccentric family, warts and all. Ms Blau grows them in your mind, until you feel they are standing right before you - lovable and terrible all at the same time. This novel makes you laugh out loud, and also shed a surreptitious tear. And much as you might enjoy this family, you will find yourself extraordinarily grateful if you have been raised in a more functioning environment. I feel that I won't forget this family, and look forward to finding the author's previou...more

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Jul 30, 2010 Margaret T. rated it 3 of 5 stars

I got to read this early as part of the Denver Publishing Institute, and it's actually pretty good. I don't normally read general, literary-type fiction, but this book is funny and sincere and believable. It's about a crazy family's interactions with each other over the years, and how they all learn to forgive and forget and just laugh about the crazy, rather than be bitter or embarrassed. REALLY funny. If you like that sort of thing, probably a good example of the genre, as it's very well-writt...more

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Nov 22, 2011 Frances Lockhart rated it 2 of 5 stars

This novels cover is so decorated the accolades and praise that there was no room for a synopsis of any kind. This should have been enough to ring alarm bells that the content was therefore going to fall short of any of the praise the author's friends were heaping on it.

Most comments on the cover kept assuring me it was "side-splitting hilairious!" It really was not any work of comedy. Perhaps had it sold itself as a quirky, off-beat novel about about a very dysfunctional family I would have gon...more

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Feb 17, 2011 Sue Morris rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: adults who enjoy quirky families and young teens

Shelves: my-library, fiction, young-adult

Anna, Portia and Emery, adult siblings, meet at their parents home after their mother, Louise, suffers a massive heart attack. Dad Buzzy called each one after Louise insisted he not. Louise is thrilled to see her children making one wonder why she did not want Buzzy to call them. While there to comfort their mother and each other, we learn of the childhood days and early adulthoods of each sibling. Anna, Portia and Emery are products of the seventies. Anyone who grew up during that decade will i...more

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Jan 18, 2011 Teresa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, for-review, books-i-own

wanted to read this one because I was craving something different. I seem to have fallen into a bit of a reading rut. I've been reading a lot of Historical fiction and Memoirs with a few fluffy titles in between. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I just needed something else. This book was most certainly outside of those parameters. The thing that I loved about it is that it allowed me to take my mind off of my own troubles but it wasn't fluffy brain candy either. This was a very dysf...more

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Jun 06, 2011 Jess Michaelangelo rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: chicklit, fiction, favorites, own

First and foremost, I would like to thank Erica at Harper Perennial for providing me with a copy of Drinking Closer to Home for review!

I fell in love with this book as I read. At first, I wasn’t so sure about the third person narrative—it seemed a little off to me. But as I read, I got used to Blau’s style and stopped noticing it. I actually really enjoyed Blau’s writing style. The way she writes, you forget that you’re reading and that you’re not actually there with the characters. And speakin...more

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Mar 01, 2011 Kari Anderson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Anna, Portia and Emery; all from the same blood line, all with very different lives. In Drinking Closer to Home, their mother is sick. She had a heart attack and now, they’re not sure she will make it. When things like this happen, you think back to the good times, the bad and the oh so memorable. This book takes you on a trip from the time these three were youngsters, through their college years and brings you back to today, all sharing little fragments of their lives and how their mother influ...more Anna, Portia and Emery; all from the same blood line, all with very different lives. In Drinking Closer to Home, their mother is sick. She had a heart attack and now, they’re not sure she will make it. When things like this happen, you think back to the good times, the bad and the oh so memorable. This book takes you on a trip from the time these three were youngsters, through their college years and brings you back to today, all sharing little fragments of their lives and how their mother influenced them, or the lack thereof and how they got to where they are today.

This is one of those books when you are reading it, you are not quite sure if it is someones life or if it is fiction because it is so believable. It’s one that you hope is not real, because you feel bad for the family for being so dysfunctional, but you also feel bad that your life seems so modest and plain and easy compared to theirs.

Jessica Anya Blau did a terrific job of story telling in this novel. The chapters jumped back and forth on the timeline, starting with Day 1 in the hospital. Then you went back to when the kids were young, then back to day two. Each time you went back in history, it was a few years later, the kids a few years older. When you went back to the present, you were a day further along. A lot of times, when authors jump around, it’s hard to know where you are, but Blau did an amazing job of keeping it all straight and did a great job of using the timeline to tell the major parts of this family’s story.

Now, I’m not going to lie, about 50 pages in, I was ready to pack this book up. I made a vow this year to not feel obligated to finish a book if I didn’t like it. I was afraid this was going to be my first casualty, but then, little Emery, aka Noble Citizen came in and I fell in love and couldn’t put the book down.

I will warn you, this isn’t your fairy tale family story. There is pain, filth, drugs, alcohol, sex and lives that go so far down the spiral, you hope they aren’t real. But, this is one of the most real, believable books I’ve read in a long time, even though it’s fiction.

I will definitely look for more books by Blau and give Drinking Closer to Home 5 bookmarks
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Mar 23, 2011 Sara Habein rated it 4 of 5 stars

While their behavior is not always admirable, it is often entertaining and understandable. Every plot point and personality detail may not be true to Blau’s real life, but she writes in a way that mimics the honesty within memoir. Writers pilfer from their lives to varying degrees, and I like how she just flat out says, Yes, this is based on my family, right down to the Nixon articles pasted to the bathroom wall.

Drinking Closer to Home is both a funny and heart-squeezing book, though not outrigh...more

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Jan 19, 2011 Joanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the kind of book that has a way of getting under my skin (in a good way) as I'm reading, and even moreso as I ponder it upon completion! This story gives us the nitty, gritty details of about the most dysfunctional family I could imagine by bringing us into the lives of three siblings.

Buzzy and Louise have raised their three children in a remote area of California and now that they have grown they seemed to have disbursed throughout various sections of the United States. After Louise has...more This is the kind of book that has a way of getting under my skin (in a good way) as I'm reading, and even moreso as I ponder it upon completion! This story gives us the nitty, gritty details of about the most dysfunctional family I could imagine by bringing us into the lives of three siblings.

Buzzy and Louise have raised their three children in a remote area of California and now that they have grown they seemed to have disbursed throughout various sections of the United States. After Louise has a heart attack the children flock back to the home nest to offer support to both of their parents. While they are visiting we are given glimpses of childhood memories that it seems they may have been keeping locked away for years.

Anna is the oldest daughter and the one that seemed to take charge of the kitchen and housework when her mother decided that raising children wasn't something that she wanted to do any longer. She could not stand the messy household that they were forced to live in and did not have any respect for her mother whom she suspected was having an affair. I find it interesting how Anna was the one to become the most promiscuous of the siblings when she was the most concerned about her mother's infidelity.

Portia was the middle child and although Anna was considered the housekeeper, Portia seemed to be the one to keep a close watch over their little brother Emery. Portia was always quiet and withdrawn and for some reason the family considered her to be mentally slow because of this. They were all surprised, but not quite as much as Portia, when she was accepted into Berkely. Although this did help to instill confidence in her, she still spent her life striving for love and acceptance.

Emery was the youngest and always felt out of place. Since his parents always had marijuana plants growing he just knew that one day his family was going to be ripped apart because they would be thrown in jail. Emery was always dirty and it seemed that his sisters really didn't want to be near him most of the time. It took Emery a long time to be honest with himself and his longings so it really took a while for him to develop a healthy dose of self respect.

These parents really confused me as I couldn't imagine deciding to have three children but then still grow marijuana plants in your backyard for your own personal use. Although Louise was the smoker, Buzzy seemed to take satisfaction in growing a superior crop for her. Buzzy appeared to be a successful lawyer so finances were not a problem for this family as they muddled their way through life.

I really enjoyed this book as I can personally say that I know people that grew up in similar environments to this one. I know many ladies that would say this is not even possible and it makes me sad to think that some people cannot even imagine the life that others have survived to get where they are. This book had me laughing while at other times saddened by what these children had to endure. So if you are interested in a book that paints an honest picture of what a family life can be with selfish parents then I definitely recommend this book.

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May 25, 2011 Shari rated it 4 of 5 stars

Three grown children return home to be with their ailing mother and their father and take the reader on a trip to their highly dysfunctional and irreverent childhoods. The book is quite funny and outrageous. Most of all it sends a strong message that parents all over the world and throughout history have loved and cared for their children as best as they possibly can and that ultimately as grown children we need to come to terms with that truth and live our lives.

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About Jessica Anya Blau

Jessica Anya Blau's passionate and poignant debut novel is a story of one girl's coming of age in 1970's Southern California."

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Quotes from Drinking Closer to Home

“She understands suddenly that the stuff that fills her up is not the love or attention she might get from other people; it is the love she herself has for other people. We are, Portia decides, the people we love” — 7 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8545939-drinking-closer-to-home?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1287070362l/8545939.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8545939-drinking-closer-to-home?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Drinking Closer to Home by Jessica Anya Blau[/url]

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