Breakfast with Tiffany: An Uncle's Memoir
Edwin Wintle was a successful, urbane professional whose life, at forty, was very comfortable. He had reached the point when he looked around at his well-ordered, unfettered existence and wondered, "Is this all there is" After a desperate call from his sister at her wits end, his street-wise thirteen-year-old niece Tiffany -- a writhing ball of adolescent anger -- comes to live with him. If he felt he needed a shot in the arm, what he got proved more like electroshock therapy.\ Breakfast with...
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Edwin Wintle was a successful, urbane professional whose life, at forty, was very comfortable. He had reached the point when he looked around at his well-ordered, unfettered existence and wondered, "Is this all there is?" After a desperate call from his sister at her wits end, his street-wise thirteen-year-old niece Tiffany -- a writhing ball of adolescent anger -- comes to live with him. If he felt he needed a shot in the arm, what he got proved more like electroshock therapy.Breakfast with Tiffany chronicles the newly minted family through a year of tumult and drama, as instant parent Uncle Eddy watches his best-laid plans go awry. With an edgy wit and compassion reminiscent of Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris, Edwin Wintle recounts not only the coming of age of his beloved, if troubled niece, but his own as well. Just when it seems there is certain disaster, the two manage to pull through it with their unconventional little family in better shape than ever. Edwin John Wintle has been an actor, lawyer, and literary agent in New York City. This is his first book. Out magazine "Breezy and entertaining...generates real emotional weight."
\ Entertainment Weekly"One of the most unconventional- and heartwarming- parenting guides ever."\ \ \ \ \ Time Out New York"Quite entertaining."\ \ \ Out magazine"Breezy and entertaining...generates real emotional weight."\ \ \ \ \ Publishers WeeklyWintle, a 40-year-old, gay, obsessive-compulsive New Yorker, rescues his 13-year-old niece, Tiffany, from her Connecticut home, where she fought with her recovering alcoholic mother, associated with delinquents and feared her mother's violent boyfriend. He has lived to tell the tale and does an exceptional job portraying Tiffany as a complex teenager, capable of eliciting sympathy one moment and animosity the next. She drinks, smokes and dabbles in drugs yet sings beautifully, writes poetry and excels in school when she tries; meanwhile, he struggles with his responsibilities as a guardian while trying to maintain his own life and career (he negotiates book-to-film deals). At times, Wintle comes off as a martyr: "I'd turned into a nasty, abusive parent," he writes after a fight with Tiffany. Yet her behavior is sometimes so atrocious, one can't help wondering why he doesn't yell at her more. Wintle is balanced in his portrayal, and glimpses of Tiffany's softer side explain why he has taken her in. The lighthearted tone makes a serious subject amusing, and Wintle is charmingly self-deprecating. Although the ending doesn't tie up all the loose ends, the journey is eye-opening, and anyone who's wondered about the mysterious lives of teenagers will enjoy Wintle's tale. Agent, Mitchell Waters. (June 15) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.\ \
