When Heather Havrilesky was a kid during the '70s, harrowing disaster films dominated every movie screen. Between her parents' dramatic clashes and her older siblings' hazing, Heather's home life sometimes mirrored the chaos onscreen. By laying bare the bumps and bruises of her youth, Havrilesky offers hope that we can find a (sometimes frazzled and unruly) way of staring disaster in the face, and even rising to meet it head on.