PSB: Meredith O'Brien, author of Louie on the Rocks, in conversation with Melanie Brooks

Event Description

Porter Square Books: Boston Edition is delighted to welcome author Meredith O'Brien for the release of her book Louie on the Rocks: A Novel. Author Melanie Brooks will join O'Brien in conversation.

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About Louie on the Rocks

For fans of Tom Perrotta, Maria Semple, and Elinor Lipman, a dark comedy about family dysfunction fueled by bitter Trump-era politics, vodka, and a reluctant daughter’s guilt.

Set against a backdrop of bitterly partisan Facebook feuds and a Trump flag set aflame in a driveway, Louie on the Rocks follows the disintegration of the Francis family six months after the premature death of their matriarch, Helen. In his wife’s absence, retired MAGA patriarch Louie descends into an alcoholic spiral and his liberal, queer, bookseller daughter Lulu responds, in a clumsy attempt to save her father from himself, by taking him to court to seize control over his finances.

Told by Louie, Lulu, and Helen—who is watching in horror from the great beyond—this is the tale of a trio with very different takes on the messy events of 2019.

PRAISE FOR Louie on the Rocks

“Meredith O’Brien’s Louie on the Rocks has a fascinating and totally unique literary style that I absolutely loved…Very highly recommend.”—Readers’ Favorite

“Louie on the Rocks perfectly captures our divisive era. We all know a Louie—someone who has been changed indelibly by the last several years of politics. O'Brien writes him, and his devastated family, with precision, humor, and grace.”—Erin Somers, author of Stay Up With Hugo Best

“A truly cautionary tale for anyone who worries for the welfare of a vulnerable elder, Louie on the Rocks reads like the real life that Meredith O’Brien chronicled so skillfully in her newspaper days. Narrator Louie’s chapters are interwoven with those bearing the distinct voices and points of view of his gay daughter grieving her mother and trying to do the best for a surviving parent who returns only hatred, and his late wife, who watches from beyond while recounting her life and the parts she played in making both father and daughter who they’ve become, and might yet be.”—Suzanne Strempek Shea, author of several books including Becoming Finola

About the Authors

Meredith O'Brien, a former newspaper reporter and investigative journalist, is the author of four books. She has written a variety of pieces on topics from pop culture, politics, and gender issues, to education and media criticism, including articles for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Baltimore Sun, The Boston Globe, The Hartford Courant, The Huffington Post, The Indianapolis Star, The Nation, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Washington Post, The Boston Herald, The Republican (then The Union-News), Holyoke Transcript-Telegram, and The Boston Herald online. She teaches journalism and writing in Massachusetts, where she also roots for her beloved Red Sox. Meredith lives in the Boston area with her husband and their loud dog Tedy.

Melanie Brooks is the author of the memoir A Hard Silence: One daughter remaps family, grief, and faith when HIV/AIDS changes it all (Vine Leaves Press, 2023) and Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma (Beacon Press, 2017) She teaches creative nonfiction in the M.F.A. program at Bay Path University and in the M.F.A. program at Western Connecticut State University and professional writing at Northeastern University. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast writing program and a Certificate in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. She has had numerous interviews and essays on topics ranging from loss and grief to parenting and aging published in the The Boston Globe, HuffPost, Yankee Magazine, The Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, and other notable publications. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two children (when they are home from college), and chocolate Lab.