Don't Let Me Down - by Erin Hosier (Paperback)

About the Book

"Erin Hosier and her family belonged to a strict evangelical church in Bainbridge, Ohio, for the first fourteen years of her life. But Erin was a rebel of the eighties who dyed her hair with cherry Kool-Aid while loudly defending liberal causes. Behind closed doors, she and her family were "five mentally ill people at different stages of development, screaming and flailing hysterically like hyenas." At the heart of the family was her father, Jack, whom Erin remembers as "the first boy I ever knew, the first man I ever loved, and the first significant person in my life to die." But she and her family also knew his other side far too well--his lies and his quick-flame anger that they were careful not to provoke. But Erin never saw her dad angry when he was listening to the Beatles. Despite being seen as a sin in their church, rock n' roll became the bond that brought father and daughter together. It gave Erin the courage to ultimately stand up to her father and everybody else; the push to leave home and move to New York City; and the coping mechanism for all the pain along the way. Don't Let Me Down is the story of a young woman who tip-toed within the shadow of her father. It breaks open what women feel about their sexuality, self-worth, and the rites of passage they go through in adolescence. Above all, it's the story of growing up with one dysfunctional family and finding peace in another."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

"Clap your hands, rattle your jewelry, and twist and shout for Erin Hosier's Don't Let Me Down....Fierce, catchy, hilarious--like your favorite vinyl punk 45--this bird can sing. A glorious memoir." -- Brando Skyhorse, author of Take This Man

This fierce and witty memoir about a father-daughter relationship "is a beautifully written, honest, and often funny account of what it is to grow up as a woman" (Nancy Balbirer, author of A Marriage in Dog Years).

Erin Hosier's coming-of-age was full of contradictions. Born into the turbulent 1970s, she was raised in rural Ohio by lapsed hippies who traded 1960s rock 'n' roll for 1950s-era Christian hymns. Her mother's newfound faith was rooted in a desire to manage her husband's mood swings, which could alternately fill the house with music or with violence.

With the Beatles providing the soundtrack, Erin grew up adoring her larger than life father, Jack. Together, they bonded over their iconic songs, even as they inspired Erin to question authority--both her father's and others'.

Don't Let Me Down is about a brave girl trying to navigate family secrets and tragedies and escape from small-town small-mindedness. With her lyrical and tender writing, Erin "doesn't shy away from the complications and contradictions of love, sharing both the best and the worst of her volatile, vibrant father and detailing--in her singular and often hilarious voice, the difficulty of leaving childhood, home, and the people who loved you first" (Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of The Nest).

Review Quotes

"Don't Let Me Down is a beautifully written, honest and often funny account of what it is to grow up as a woman. Erin Hosier not only nails the complicated father-daughter dynamic that inevitably cross-fades into gnarly relationships with men, but she does so artfully and with uncanny insight, delivering a stunningly tender tribute to the power of faith, love and, yes, the Beatles."-- Nancy Balbirer, author of A Marriage in Dog Years

"[An] unsettling yet witty coming-of-age story...with chapter headings named after Beatles songs, this incisive memoir effectively transports readers to the '70s while exploring the weighty complexities of father-daughter love."-- Publishers Weekly

"Clap your hands, rattle your jewelry, and twist and shout for Erin Hosier's Don't Let Me Down. If 'true love shares a soundtrack, ' The Beatles gave an inspired daughter her only chance to connect with a complicated, troubled father. Hosier's story is crammed with joy, heartbreak, transformation, and, at last, acceptance. Fierce, catchy, hilarious - like your favorite ?vinyl punk '45 - this bird can sing. A glorious memoir."-- Brando Skyhorse, author of Take This Man

"Erin Hosier's remarkable coming-of-age story is tender, funny and resilient. Hosier doesn't shy away from the complications and contradictions of love, sharing both the best and the worst of her volatile, vibrant father and detailing--in her singular and often hilarious voice the difficulty of leaving childhood, home, and the people who loved you first."-- Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of The Nest

"Erin's humorous, insightful memoir is wildly quotable. Like Ben Franklin quotable. You'll be passing off her profound little bon-mots to your friends like you wrote them."-- Mishna Wolff, author of I'm Down

"Hosier delivers a memoir that is less about chasing an identity and more about having one cast upon her and coming to terms with it. A vividly rhythmic chronicle of reconciliation couched with a 1960s rock-'n'-roll soundtrack."-- Kirkus Reviews

"In Erin Hosier's Don't Let Me Down, she shows us the slow and often imperceptible ways that a family becomes fractured, one secret at a time, until all is broken. Her memoir attempts to make that brokenness whole, an homage to her father, a testament to her brothers, to faith, and ultimately, to love. All of this is set within the structure of old Beatles tunes, one of the few shared pleasures that her family engaged in together. I read it in one sitting, the words playing like an LP in my brain."-- Tanya Marquardt, author of Stray: Memoir of a Runaway

"With a soundtrack provided by the Beatles, [Erin] Hosier's memoir considers her Ohio youth and New York City coming-of-age... Hosier writes most ecstatically about music and keeps readers turning pages with suspenseful foreshadowing and subtle cliff-hangers."-- Booklist