Filthy Beasts
A Memoir
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Running with Scissors meets Grey Gardens in this “vivid tragicomedy” (People), a riveting riches-to-rags tale of a wealthy family who lost it all and the unforgettable journey of a man coming to terms with his family’s deep flaws and his own hidden secrets.
“Wake up, you filthy beasts!” Wendy Hamill would shout to her children in the mornings before school. Startled from their dreams, Kirk and his two brothers couldn’t help but wonder—would they find enough food in the house for breakfast?
Following a hostile exit from New York’s upper-class society, newly divorced Wendy and her three sons are exiled from the East Coast elite circle. Wendy’s middle son, Kirk, is eight when she moves the family to her native Bermuda, leaving the three young boys to fend for themselves as she chases after the highs of her old life: alcohol, a wealthy new suitor, and other indulgences.
After eventually leaving his mother’s dysfunctional orbit for college in New Orleans, Kirk begins to realize how different his family and upbringing is from that of his friends and peers. Split between rich privilege—early years living in luxury on his family’s private compound—and bare survival—rationing food and water during the height of his mother’s alcoholism—Kirk is used to keeping up appearances and burying his inconvenient truths from the world, until he’s eighteen and falls in love for the first time.
A keenly observed, fascinating window into the life of extreme privilege and a powerful story of self-acceptance, Filthy Beasts is “a stunning, deeply satisfying story about how we outlive our upbringings” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hamill, a former nonprofit development chief, debuts with this sharp, thoughtful account of his formerly wealthy family's fall and his own coming-of-age. Hamill spent his first six years living a life of privilege at the family compound in 1970s Long Island, watching his parents luxuriate in WASP pastimes of yachting, cocktails, and socializing. But when his grandparents died, they left the clan surprisingly destitute due to "lavish spending and poor investment decisions." The family moved to an upstate farm where everything fell apart: Hamill's parents divorced, and his mom, a beautiful force of nature, took Hamill and his two brothers to her native Bermuda where she despaired of her lost, moneyed life and began drinking. Hamill, meanwhile, didn't fit in on the island and began to question his sexuality. Much of the story has a train wreck quality as Hamill details his mother's drinking, and their tense and antagonistic relationship. It wasn't until he was in his 30s that Hamill accepted his homosexuality and told his disbelieving mother: "A mother like you should have a gay son.... My God, a mother like you makes a gay son." In smooth prose, Hamill's narrative moves gracefully without ever being precious. Fans of difficult family memoirs will want to take a look.
