Thirty Rooms to Hide In
Insanity, Addiction, and Rock ‘n’ Roll in the Shadow of the Mayo Clinic
320 Pages, 6 x 9 in
- Paperback
- 9780816679713
- Published: March 1, 2014
Details
Thirty Rooms to Hide In
Insanity, Addiction, and Rock ‘n’ Roll in the Shadow of the Mayo Clinic
ISBN: 9780816679713
Publication date: March 1st, 2014
320 Pages
58
9 x 6
If you’re looking for proof that the Great American Family Drama is alive and kicking, here it is. Luke Longstreet Sullivan’s heart wrenching, poignant, and often hilarious family history is laid bare like a shattered bottle of bourbon. I wish more memoirs took the chances this one does. And reached such heights. This is a bravura work.—Peter Geye, author of Safe from the Sea
Author Luke Longstreet Sullivan has a simple way of describing his new memoir: “It’s like The Shining . . . only funnier.” Thirty Rooms to Hide In tells the astonishing story of Sullivan’s father and his descent from one of the world’s top orthopedic surgeons at the Mayo Clinic to a man who is increasingly abusive, alcoholic, and insane, ultimately dying alone on the floor of a Georgia motel room. For his wife and six sons, the years prior to his death were characterized by turmoil, anger, and family dysfunction; but somehow they were also a time of real happiness for Sullivan and his brothers, full of dark humor and much laughter.
Through the 1950s and 1960s, the six brothers had a wildly fun and thoroughly dysfunctional childhood living in a forbidding thirty-room mansion, known as the Millstone, on the outskirts of Rochester, Minnesota. The many rooms of the immense home, as well as their mother’s loving protection, allowed the Sullivan brothers to grow up as normal, mischievous boys. Against a backdrop of the times—the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, fallout shelters, JFK’s assassination, and the Beatles—the cracks in their home life and their father’s psyche continue to widen. When their mother decides to leave the Millstone and move the family across town, the Sullivan boys are able to find solace in each other and in rock ’n’ roll.
As Thirty Rooms to Hide In follows the story of the Sullivan family—at times grim, at others poignant—a wonderful, dark humor lifts the narrative. Tragic, funny, and powerfully evocative of the 1950s and 1960s, Thirty Rooms to Hide In is a tale of public success and private dysfunction, personal and familial resilience, and the strange power of humor to give refuge when it is needed most, even if it can’t always provide the answers.
Luke Longstreet Sullivan worked in the advertising business for thirty years and is now chair of the advertising department at the Savannah College of Art and Design. He is the author of the popular advertising book Hey Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Ads and writes the blog heywhipple.com. He lives in Savannah with his wife and two sons.
Contents
FuneralThe MillstoneSkeletons in the ClosetBone DoctorsGrandma Rock Sentences Everyone to HellLittle Christians, All in a RowLittle Monsters in Every Room Memory: Throwing UpA Library of Her OwnForts, Death, and BedtimeCold WarFive O’clock ShadowHead X-Ray: Roger in 1957Shit Gathers in General Area of FanCyclops and the Fallout ShelterMemory: Dad Helps with HomeworkHidden Books, Hidden LettersEleven Twenty-twoFun at the Foot of the VolcanoRat HelicoptersCause of Death: UnknownThe Pagans“Spats with the Wife”Memory: I Am “Suave Ghost”The Alcoholic’s Guide to Ruining EveningsSnowballs Somehow Made in Hell Memory: I Am “Little Brother Man”Leaving the Millstone“We’ve Always Lived in This Castle”Haunted HouseCeiling Tiles over a Psychiatrist’s CouchMemory: I Am “Quiet Man”Things That Were Scarier Than DadBaba Yaga Memory: I Am the Fifth BeatleHiding in the Bathroom from BulletsHiding in the Tower Library Memory: I Am the Incredible HulkMemory: I Am “Lonely Guy”Pagan RitesEye of the HurricaneNo Help from GodCase #34233 Daydream: I Am “the Bullshit Police”“Our Drummer Committed Suicide”One Last Good ChristmasTiny Details in Family Pictures Daydream: I Save DadGoodnight, IreneWhiteout/BlackoutMeltdown in West Palm Beach“Do I Owe You Any Money?”The Famous Final SceneZee Tortured ArteestPhone Calls from the DeadThe Mortal CoilRoom 50 The Irish FluSunday, July 3, 1966Pagans in the TempleOne Last LookSunlight Streams through a High WindowI Believe in God BrieflyThe Big Bad WorldTake a Sad Song and Make It BetterThis Very Room“And Every Winter Change to Spring”
Epilogue
AcknowledgmentsAuthor’s Note
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