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Wade Rouse, Saugatuck resident and author of America's Boy and At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream, is back with another collection of uproarious essays - It's All Relative: Two Families, Three Dogs, 34 Holidays and 50 Boxes of Wine.
Tethered to yearly celebrations we are all forced to endure (anniversaries, birthdays. Thanksgiving), as well as occasions especially near and dear to the Rouse clan (Oscar night, the Miss USA Pageant, Arbor Day), Rouse reminds us of all of the ways we love, humiliate, frustrate, and forgive one another - especially family members - 365 days a year.
Rouse, often referred to as "the sexy Sedaris," opened up to the Windy City Times about his new collection of comic essays; book-tour horror stories; and how Chelsea Handler and her dog Chunk are involved with his new, forthcoming "pet" project - a dog anthology.
Windy City Times: Wade, talk a little about how your new memoir is different than all the other family-holiday memoirs crowding bookstore shelves.
Wade Rouse: This memoir is totally universal. I mean, what person can't relate to this book? We all share our family stories and holiday dysfunction with friends, neighbors, co-workers, therapists.
Really, though, this is the first "a U- h o li day" memoir, one not just focused on Christmas, but on 34 holidays throughout the year, including the traditional and, well, the not-so-[traditional]. I cover Easter, Fourth of July, birthdays, anniversaries. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, but I also cover the odd holidays, like Arbor Day, St. Patty's (all about Chicago!), Secretary's Day and Pez Collectors National Convention Day.
Really, holidays are our "memory moments" and yet [they can be] the toughest times for many families and for many gay people. On the surface, this looks like an essay collection, but I put great thought into which holidays and why, so the narrative flow is like that of a full memoir, one that ebbs and flows, and has incredible humor and impact, so that by the end of the book, you feel as if you've lived in the Rouse House your entire life. I think holidays are like Campbell's soup: They are life, condensed.
WCT: As you just mentioned. It's All Relative also lampoons...