Press Release: It’s All Relative by Wade Rouse
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dyana Messina
(212) 572-2098
dmessina@randomhouse.com
Family: The Gift that Just Keeps on Giving…
No Matter How Much We Wish They Would Stop.
IT’S ALL RELATIVE
Two Families, Three Dogs, 34 Holidays, and
50 Boxes of Wine (A Memoir)
By Wade Rouse
PRAISE FOR WADE ROUSE
“In the spirit of David Sedaris … Laugh-out-loud funny!”
—John Searles on NBC’s Weekend Today
“A wise, witty, and often wicked voice.”
—USA Today
“An original writer and impressive new voice.”
—Washington Post
“Laugh-out-loud hilarious. At first you laugh when you least expect to—and then,
somewhere along the way, you realize you’ve been laughing almost nonstop.”
—Detroit Free Press
“Rouse’s journey from frenzied unhappiness to quiet happiness is hilarious, poignant, and touching.”
—Grand Rapids Press
“This is David Sedaris meets Dave Barry…every page is good for a laugh.”
—Library Journal
“Drop the David Sedaris and run towards Rouse. He’s funnier.”
—Out Front Colorado
Since the publication of his first memoir, America’s Boy, Wade Rouse’s fresh, incisive, and wickedly funny writing has earned him comparisons to such well-known humorists as Jen Lancaster, David Rakoff, Erma Bombeck, and David Sedaris. Whether he’s musing on the trials and tribulations of private school life in the acclaimed Confessions of a Prep School Mommy Handler or regaling readers with stories of rural living in the widely praised At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream, Rouse has become an author to watch thanks to his ability for effortlessly combining poignant insights with a hearty dose of tongue-in-cheek. Now, in IT’S ALL RELATIVE: Two Families, Three Dogs, 34 Holidays, and 50 Boxes of Wine (A Memoir) (Crown; February 1, 2011), Rouse has turned his eye to a new kind dysfunction we can all identify with: Family.
In IT’S ALL RELATIVE, Rouse celebrates the beauty that is the imperfect family. Looking through the lens of his own clan, we meet a chatty and loving mother, an eccentric engineer of a father, a marvelously Martha Stewart-esque partner, a garage-sale obsessed set of in-laws, and an oddball collection of relatives who provide an endless supply of embarrassing, yet endearing incidents on which Rouse reflects. Centered around the yearly celebrations we all are forced to endure (anniversaries, birthdays, Thanksgiving), as well as occasions especially near and dear to the Rouse family (Oscar night, the Miss USA Pageant, Arbor Day), Rouse reminds us all of the ways we love, humiliate, frustrate, honor, and forgive one another 365 days a year.
At times off the wall and laugh-out-loud funny, and at others deeply moving and insightful, IT’S ALL RELATIVE celebrates family and all the baggage—good and bad—that comes along with them.
About the Author
Wade Rouse is the critically acclaimed author of the memoirs America’s Boy, Confessions of a Prep School Mommy Handler, and At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream and editor of the upcoming humorous dog anthology I’m Not the Biggest Bitch in This Relationship! He is a humor columnist for Metrosource magazine, a contributor to The Customer Is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles, and his essays have been published in numerous national magazines and collections, including Forbes.com and Chicago Public Radio. Rouse lives outside the resort town of Saugatuck, Michigan, where—in between blizzards and beach weather—he writes and battles for bed space with his partner, Gary, and their mutts, Marge and Mabel.
Wade Rouse is available for select readings and lectures. To inquire about a possible appearance, please contact the Random House Speakers Bureau at rhspeakers@randomhouse.com.
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IT’S ALL RELATIVE
By Wade Rouse
Crown Publishing Group
February 1, 2011 * Pages: 304
Price: $23.99 * ISBN: 978-0-307-71871-6
www.WadeRouse.com
