A Way of Life, Like Any Other, by Darcy O'Brien

This book has been on my bedside for months (untouched!) after a voracious reader friend called it his favorite book he’s read in years— I saw it pop up in a New Yorker summer roundup this week which reminded me to get to it!

Winner of the 1978 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel

“The hero of Darcy O'Brien's A Way of Life, Like Any Other is a child of Hollywood, and once his life was a glittery dream. His father starred in Westerns. His mother was a goddess of the silver screen. The family enjoyed the high life on their estate, Casa Fiesta. But his parents' careers have crashed since then, and their marriage has broken up too.

Lovesick and sex-crazed, the mother sets out on an intercontinental quest for the right—or wrong—man, while her mild-mannered but manipulative former husband clings to his memories in California. And their teenage son? How he struggles both to keep faith with his family and to get by himself, and what in the end he must do to break free, makes for a classic coming-of-age story—a novel that combines keen insight and devastating wit to hilarious and heartbreaking effect.”