Description
The author recounts her experiences of being raised by parents who believed that the working world was a man's domain and that her priority was to marry into wealth, describing the refocus that occurred when she married a man who expected her to contribute financially.
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Julie Klam was raised as the only daughter of one of three Jewish families in the exclusive WASP stronghold of Bedford, New York - not counting the (Ralph) Laurens. 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?After years of floundering in both her love life and her career, answering phones at her father's insurance and financial planning firm, watching her jailbird boyfriend "temporarily" move in and then swiftly leave her for a richer woman, Julie sees things start to fall into place - albeit a little differently from how she had pictured. 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.
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