It's All Relative

Two Families, Three Dogs, 34 Holidays, and 50 Boxes of Wine
by Wade Rouse

I love memoirs. I don't mean biographies. Those are ok, if I'm interested in the person. But memoirs can be about and by anyone, known or unknown. In fact, the memoirs of unknown people are better because they really don't have anything to lose by telling their stories. I've read some criticism of memoirs that complained that memoirs are usually not completely true. I don't really care about that. I like memoirs because they often read like novels. Anyone with a life interesting enough to have their story published, has to have an interesting life. Either that, or they are talented enough of a writer to many an ordinary life story worth reading.

Wade Rouse is a writer of memoirs. That's what he does. In former professions, he was a journalist and a publicist, I think. But his career since his first book, America's Boy, in 2007, has been memoirist. Is that a word?

He's comparable to David Sedaris. He's got that modern sense of humor. In this book he writes about his childhood and his current life with his partner and soul mate Gary. Each chapter centers around a different holiday, including such obscure commemorations as "Swedish Day".

This is a hilarious book. I laughed out loud many times while reading it. But there are also some very tender and touching parts as well. Family life is the theme of this book: Wade's family, Gary's family and the Wade-and-Gary family.

Wade Rouse is the author of four, critically-acclaimed memoirs, including America's Boy (Dutton/2006), Confessions of A Prep School Mommy Handler (Harmony/2007), and the bestsellers, At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream: Misadventures in Search of the Simple Life (Harmony/2009), and It's All Relative: A Memoir of Two Families, Three Dogs, 34 Holidays and 50 Boxes of Wine (Crown/2011). He is also the creator and editor of the upcoming, humorous dog anthology, I'm Not the Biggest Bitch in This Relationship: Hilarious, Heartwarming Tales about Man's Best Friends by America's Favorite Humorists.