Perfectly Miserable: Guilt, God and Real Estate in a Small Town

U.S.A.: Riverhead Books, 2014. 1st Edition. . Hardcover. As New/As New. As New copy in As New, unclipped dustwrapper. Signed and inscribed by the author in black ink to the front page: 'To Karen, great to meet you''. First printing indicated by full number line. Unread, completely clean copy. There is very light bump at top upper corner of spine and jacket, otherwise as new in everything. This seems to be the only signed copy across different platforms. Collectible, wonderful copy. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Summary: At eighteen, Sarah Payne Stuart fled her mother and all the other disapproving mothers of her too perfect hometown of Concord, Massachusetts, only to return years later when she had children of her own. Whether to defy the previous generation or finally earn their approval and enter their ranks, she hurled herself into upper-crust domesticity full throttle. In the twenty years Stuart spent back in her hometown¿in a series of ever more magnificent houses in ever grander neighborhoods¿she was forced to connect with the cultural tradition of guilt and flawed parenting of a long legacy of local, literary women from Emerson¿s wife, to Hawthorne¿s, to the most famous and imposing of them all, Louisa May Alcott¿s iconic, guilt-tripping Marmee. 1st Printing 1st Printing 1st Printing