The Splendid Things We Planned: A Family Portrait

Biography & Memoir
Cover of the book The Splendid Things We Planned: A Family Portrait by Blake Bailey, W. W. Norton & Company
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Author: Blake Bailey ISBN: 9780393242881
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Publication: March 3, 2014
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company Language: English
Author: Blake Bailey
ISBN: 9780393242881
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publication: March 3, 2014
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English

**A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist 'Autobiography'

The renowned biographer’s unforgettable portrait of a family in ruins—his own.**

Meet the Baileys: Burck, a prosperous lawyer once voted the American Legion’s “Citizen of the Year” in his tiny hometown of Vinita, Oklahoma; his wife Marlies, who longs to recapture her festive life in Greenwich Village as a fetching young German immigrant, fresh off the boat; their addled son Scott, who repeatedly crashes the family Porsche; and Blake, the younger son, trying to find a way through the storm. “You’re gonna be just like me,” a drunken Scott taunts him. “You’re gonna be worse.”

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Blake Bailey has been hailed as “addictively readable” (New York Times) and praised for his ability to capture lives “compellingly and in harrowing detail” (Time). The Splendid Things We Planned is his darkly funny account of growing up in the shadow of an erratic and increasingly dangerous brother, an exhilarating and sometimes harrowing story that culminates in one unforgettable Christmas.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

**A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist 'Autobiography'

The renowned biographer’s unforgettable portrait of a family in ruins—his own.**

Meet the Baileys: Burck, a prosperous lawyer once voted the American Legion’s “Citizen of the Year” in his tiny hometown of Vinita, Oklahoma; his wife Marlies, who longs to recapture her festive life in Greenwich Village as a fetching young German immigrant, fresh off the boat; their addled son Scott, who repeatedly crashes the family Porsche; and Blake, the younger son, trying to find a way through the storm. “You’re gonna be just like me,” a drunken Scott taunts him. “You’re gonna be worse.”

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Blake Bailey has been hailed as “addictively readable” (New York Times) and praised for his ability to capture lives “compellingly and in harrowing detail” (Time). The Splendid Things We Planned is his darkly funny account of growing up in the shadow of an erratic and increasingly dangerous brother, an exhilarating and sometimes harrowing story that culminates in one unforgettable Christmas.

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