Description

A woman's hilarious, bittersweet account of growing up in a family of career-shunning, dependence-seeking women and her journey to a state of twenty-first-century self-reliance.

Julie Klam was raised as the only daughter of a Jewish family in the exclusive WASP stronghold of Bedford, New York. Her mother was sharp, glamorous, and funny, but did not think that work was a woman's responsibility. Her father was fully supportive, not just of his wife's staying at home, but also of her extravagant lifestyle. Her mother's offbeat parenting style-taking Julie out of school to go to lunch at Bloomingdale's, for example-made her feel well-cared-for (and well-dressed) but left her unprepared for graduating and entering the real world. She had been brought up to look pretty and wait for a rich man to sweep her off her feet. But what happened if he never showed up?

When Julie gets married to a hardworking but not wealthy man-one who expects her to be part of a modern couple and contribute financially to the marriage-she realizes how ambivalent and ill-equipped she is for life. Once she gives birth to a daughter, she knows she must grow up, get to work, and teach her child the self-reliance that she never learned.

Delivered in an uproariously funny, sweet, self-effacing, and utterly memorable voice, Please Excuse My Daughter is a bighearted memoir from an irresistible new writer.

About the Author

Julie Klam grew up in Bedford, New York. After attending NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and interning at Late Night with David Letterman, she went on to write for such publications as O, The Oprah Magazine, Rolling Stone, Harper's Bazaar, and Glamour and for the VH1 television show Pop-Up Video, where she earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Special Class Writing. She married the show's producer, Paul Leo. They live with their daughter and Boston terrier.

Praise for Please Excuse My Daughter…

"If tragedy plus time equals comedy, Julie Klam makes the most of that equation. Her funny, poignant, and original first memoir is a must read for anyone who has ever had a mother, a crazy boyfriend, or has been in therapy. This is gallows humor from a girl who lived life at the end of her rope."
-Carrie Fisher, author of Postcards from the Edge

"Julie Klam is one funny writer. Please Excuse My Daughter is also unstintingly honest and very smart; a slyly moving book, it stays with you."
-David Rakoff, author of Don't Get Too Comfortable and Fraud

"Julie Klam's memoir is so hilarious and touching and terrific that I like to go around claiming the reminiscences in it are mine. If you read this book and don't think it's droll and funny and happy and sad, then you and I surely disagree about everything."
-Patricia Marx, author of Him Her Him Again The End of Him

"In a memoir that is often hilarious, sometimes poignant, and always endearing, Julie Klam lets us in on her deepest secrets and invites us to share in her struggles and triumphs as a daughter, wife, mother, and writer. Please Excuse My Daughter is an exhilarating debut from a major new writer, one with an almost-magical knack for finding comedy in the most unlikely places."
-Rich Cohen, author of Sweet and Low: A Family Story