The Nearly Departed: Or, My Family and Other Foreigners

by Brenda Cullerton

Book Overview

Adarkly hilarious memoir about the final passage in the lives of the author's wildly eccentric parents -- a journey to the impenetrably remote and foreign land of her own backyard

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316162531
• ISBN13: 9780316162531
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

An intriguing and touching collection of family memories

"As mother taught me, life was a stage - a real stage, with no metaphor intended - and everyone on it but us was an extra." (-The Nearly Departed: Or, My Family & Other Foreigners)Far from prosaic and most definitely diverting, Brenda Cullerton's unabashedly candid memoir "The Nearly Departed: Or, My Family & Other Foreigners" is a refreshing departure from the autobiographical norm. Dancing between dark humour, stinging wit and poignant life realities, the author's recollections of her wildly outlandish family are often more bitter than sweet. To be sure, the collective confessions from the `Cullerton Family Crypt' will have you sobbing, guffawing, sighing, and feeling strangely schizophrenic - all in one chapter. The truth is, Brenda Cullerton's family would raise anyone's eyebrow. At the forefront of these eccentric anecdotes are her parents - a social misfit mother who gardened in baggy black undies, lavish jewelry coupled with pop-it beads, and her hair bedecked in curlers; and an alcoholic father who was usually found anywhere but home, and amassed a hidden fortune as traveling businessman in the shoe trade (only to later hide his cash in their dilapidated barn, stuffed in the toes of moldy footwear). Now in their winter years, Brenda Cullerton's parents - suffering from ill health - evoke her return to this alien landscape called "home". As the author painstakingly sifts through piles of family memories encountered along the way, not only does she learn more about these virtual "foreigners" who are family, but ultimately discovers herself and the all reasons for her insatiable desire to escape the past. Artfully and intelligently captured on paper, it is Cullerton's ingenuous journey through introspection which makes "The Nearly Departed" quite nearly flawless.

An intriguing and touching collection of family memories

Far from prosaic and most definitely diverting, Brenda Cullerton's unabashedly candid memoir "The Nearly Departed: Or, My Family & Other Foreigners" is a refreshing departure from the autobiographical norm. Dancing between dark humour, stinging wit and poignant life realities, the author's recollections of her wildly outlandish family are often more bitter than sweet. To be sure, the collective confessions from the `Cullerton Family Crypt' will have you sobbing, guffawing, sighing, and feeling strangely schizophrenic - all in one chapter. The truth is, Brenda Cullerton's family would raise anyone's eyebrow. At the forefront of these eccentric anecdotes are her parents - a social misfit mother who gardened in baggy black undies, lavish jewelry coupled with pop-it beads, and her hair bedecked in curlers; and an alcoholic father who was usually found anywhere but home, and amassed a hidden fortune as traveling businessman in the shoe trade (only to later hide his cash in their dilapidated barn, stuffed in the toes of moldy footwear). Now in their winter years, Brenda Cullerton's parents - suffering from ill health - evoke her return to this alien landscape called "home". As the author painstakingly sifts through piles of family memories encountered along the way, not only does she learn more about these virtual "foreigners" who are family, but ultimately discovers herself and the all reasons for her insatiable desire to escape the past. Artfully and intelligently captured on paper, it is Cullerton's ingenuous journey through introspection which makes "The Nearly Departed" quite nearly flawless.

It's all in the family.....

I read a review of "The Nearly Departed" in the Ridgefield Press, which I still have delivered to my new address in another state. The review had me laughing so hard, I decided that I simply had to get this book. Having spent 23 years in Ridgefield, CT was a plus as I could picture so many scenes as described and these are NOT things one would see in Ridgefield! Perhaps one would see people going down a Main Street in pink foam curlers elsewhere, but certainly not there. Now that that is in perspective, Brenda Cullerton has a wit that will get you laughing out loud, but the book is so much deeper than one might first think. I realize that the average family is dysfunctional to a degree. Unfortunately for Brenda, her family seemed to encompass every dysfunctional element known to man! Hopefully in writing this book, she was able to come to terms with issues in her life; I know that in reading it, she helped me to both understand and come to terms with some things in mine. Thank you Brenda, for both a terrific laugh and a learning experience.

...and you think YOUR family is weird...?

Uh-uh. Brenda Cullerton's family makes everyone else's look like The Cleavers in the 50s. Always strange, eccentric, and downright dippy, the eclectic blend of people she calls 'family' descends to purely outrageous behavior as they age. Cullerton, who escaped the craziness early on to try to build her own life, finds it necessary to return to help care for them as they dwindle in death's inevitable direction. What she finds defies belief and has the neighborhood association in full battle stance.Both hilarious and heartbreaking (sometimes we're not sure if we're laughing AT her or WITH her), Nearly Departed is an offering of love and a measure of belated understanding to her parents, however strange they may be.

Through the mirror, darkly

Make sure you pick up this book when you are able to cut a large swath of time from your busy day, because once you start to read Ms. Cullerton's tome, good luck putting it down. Her incisive revelations of her family in specific and familial relationships in general will make you both howl with laughter and send you back into therapy.Yikes, talk about your double-edged sword. Well, how does the saying go: Nobody will ever love you like your mother; thank God. So, go, buy it, enjoy. I'll just sit here in the dark.