Home is Burning: A Memoir

Published by Hachette UK Audio

At 25 Dan left his 'spoiled white asshole' life in Los Angeles to look after his dying parents in Salt Lake City, Utah. His mother, who had already been battling cancer on and off for close to 15 years, had taken a turn for the worse. His father, a devoted marathon runner and adored parent, had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease, which was quickly eroding his body.

Dan's four siblings were already home, caring for their parents and resenting Dan for not doing the same.

Home Is Burning tells the story of Dan's year at home in Salt Lake City, as he reunites with his eclectic family—the only non-Mormon family of seven in the entire town—all of them trying their best to be there for the father who had always been there for them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette UK Audio
• Release date: Oct 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781473626188

Reviews for Home is Burning

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

nonfiction/memoir (caring for terminally ill parents with lots of swearing, drinking and some drug use--also, some opinions about Mormons are shared). Wouldn't think a book like this could be hilarious, but I definitely had to laugh out loud during some parts.

[susandennis-139327 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I marked this as read but I only 'read' half. I first picked up the Kindle version from the library and was so taken with the first chapter, that I bought the audible version. The reader is not a talented one and the voice he gave the book was way different than the one on the page. But, the main problem was that halfway in the story and the writing also collapsed. I quit.

[mhanover10 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

First off, if you are offended by swearing, don't read this book because there is a ton. What a horrible thing to go through. Dan tells the story of when his Mom was going through cancer treatment and their Dad was diagnosed with ALS and eventually died from the disease. It's a very frank and brutally honest look at how a family copes with two parents dying.

[lycaenidae-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Highly recommend

[lanamarie-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

My hopes for this book came crashing down shortly after starting when I realized that it would just be a memoir of how shitty these people are. Do I feel bad that the parents were both terminally ill? Sure, I'm not heartless. But what I feel worse about is how absolutely terrible the family treats each other. I mostly found myself angry that any of them found their behavior to be appropriate, and maybe it's funny and kitschy from the inside, growing up with that sense of humor, but from a readers perspective it just got annoyingly show-off-ish (which is exactly how Dan Marshall seems to be anyhow). "Look at us swear, look at us be vulgar, look at us say dumb things at inappropriate times". Yeah, no thanks. Not my style.

[kremsa-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have very mixed feelings about this book. A lot of it I enjoyed and could relate to and other times I found the book to be somewhat off putting and the foul language excessive. Home is Burning is Dan Marshall's memoir of his year of moving back home to help care for his father who is dying from Lou Gerhig's disease. His mother is battling cancer and has been on and off for a good part of his life. He has a sister with Aspergers, a brother who is gay and another adopted Native American sister who appears to have a drinking problem. I can't imagine having to deal with all of this all at the same time and Dan's story about how he and his family did is sometimes inspirational and sometimes rather dysfunctional. I appreciate that Dan used humor as his coping mechanism but sometimes it seemed a bit cruel and went too far. Kudos to him for being honest about it! My mother suffered for years from a severe form of MS and I often cared for her doing things I felt no daughter should have to ever do for their parent so I can relate to a lot of Dan's story about the intimate details of what caring for his father entailed. What I did like about the book is that I could see how much Dan loved his dad and his family.