The End of the World as We Know It

Scenes from a Life

By: Robert Goolrick

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

It was the 1950s, a time of calm, a time when all things were new and everything seemed possible. A few years before, a noble war had been won, and now life had returned to normal. For one little boy, however, life had become anything but "normal."

To all appearances, he and his family lived an almost idyllic life. The father was a respected professor, the mother a witty and elegant lady, someone everyone loved. They were parents to three bright, smiling children: two boys and a girl. They lived on a sunny street in a small college town nestled neatly in a leafy valley. They gave parties, hosted picnics, went to church - just like their neighbors. To all appearances, their life seemed ideal. But it was, in fact, all appearances.

Lineage, tradition, making the right impression - these were matters of great importance, especially to the mother. But behind the facade this family had created lurked secrets so dark, so painful for this one little boy, that his life would never be the same. It is through the eyes of that boy - a grown man now, revisiting that time - that we see this seemingly serene world and watch as it slowly comes completely and irrevocably undone.

Contains mature themes.

©2007 Robert Goolrick (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Trigger alert!

I read this memoir based upon a review by a notable literary figure and was not fully prepared for what it contained. I feel that for people like me with a background full of trauma, an account of such graphic and sensitive subject matter should come with a bit of a warning. For me, there is the story of chapters 1-9, then there was everything after, and I wasn't the same audience that I had been before 10. I commend the author for his brave honesty about such painful, transformative events, and I pray the process of telling the ugly truth brought him some cathartic and much-deserved healing.

Read or Run Away, No Mid-Ground Here.

A thrilling, electrifying, repugnant and ultimately impossibly compelling memoir that echoes far too closely the memories of my own childhood confusion and my beautiful brother’s dark secret. I struggled at first to embrace the narrator’s variable cadence, but by chapter 4 the inspiration for his style was revealed. Chapter 10 knocked the air out of me, and gave me chills. This is not a “want to” but a “have to” read.