Fellow writer and full-time literature professor, Sarahlyn Bruck was kind enough to feature a Q&A we did about my work as a writer and, specifically, my forthcoming novel, Louie on the Rocks.
It starts this way:
Read the whole interview here.
Baltimore-based author Leslie Gray Streeter and I met one another in 2020 just when our memoirs — mine, Uncomfortably Numb, and hers, Black Widow — hit the shelves. Our book promo plans upended by the pandemic, we joined a group of 70+ writers who all had books released at the same time, and we collectively tried to help one another.
A few years later, I met Leslie in person when I invited members of our writers’ group, Lockdown Lit, to a group book event at Tatnuck Bookseller in Westborough, Mass.
When it came time to solicit blurbs for Louie on the Rocks, her name immediately popped into my head because she and I are frequently liking one another’s posts on social media.
I also had the pleasure of reading an advance copy of her forthcoming novel, Family and Other Calamities. I LOVED it and can’t wait for others to have the delightful experience.
Here’s her full blurb:
Louie On The Rocks is a frank and, at times, blisteringly funny testament to the corroding influences of grief, addiction , polarization, regret and emotional abandonment. It’s told with multiple vivid voices giving witness to a tragic chain of events that might be stoppable – but probably aren’t.
— Leslie Gray Streeter
Please join me in celebrating the launch of my latest book, Louie on the Rocks, at Tatnuck Bookseller in Westborough, Mass. on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 4 p.m.
I’m honored that Worcester writer Kevin Koczwara — a former UMass-Amherst journalism student of mine — will be there to lead a writerly conversation with me about the book and its many themes, ranging from how political polarization affects families to how adult children should deal with struggling older parents.
After the conversation, we’ll do a Q&A, I’ll read a bit from the book, and then sign copies.
Thank you Erin Somers — author of the darkly humorous Stay Up with Hugo Best (pick it up, you’ll thank me) — for your gracious words about Louie on the Rocks:
“Louie on the Rocks perfectly captures our divisive era. We all know a Louie–someone who has been changed indelibly by the last several years of politics. O’Brien writes him, and his devastated family, with precision, humor, and grace.”
The web site Ms. Career Girl has pulled together a list of recommended reads for 2025 — “a book for every type of reader” — and Louie on the Rocks made their list.
Ms. Career Girl recommended the novel — out Feb. 4 from SparkPress — for liberal adult children “living in their parents’ conservative world.”
My forthcoming, Massachusetts-set novel, Louie on the Rocks (Feb. 4) is a 2025 @sheknows must-read:
“Life is messy, but family and politics are even messier. [The MAGA dad Louie and his progressive daughter Lulu] must confront their differences and find a way to heal—or risk letting their fractured relationship become their ultimate undoing.”
Read the full review here.
Preorder: https://bookshop.org/p/books/louie-on-the-rocks-meredith-o-brien/21562828?ean=9781684632909
While I’ve already announced the upcoming February release of my second novel — Louie on the Rocks, a dark comedy set in central Massachusetts about a dysfunctional family influenced by Trump era politics, circa 2019 — I can now proudly announce my second 2025 book.
Uncomfortably Numb 2: An Anthology for Newly-Diagnosed MS Patients is slated for publication in May 2025 by Wyatt-MacKenzie, which published my 2020 medical memoir, Uncomfortably Numb, about the life-altering impact of my MS diagnosis.
This nonfiction book will feature the stories of MS patients at varying stages of the incurable autoimmune disease of the brain and spinal cord, and of MS advocates who work to better the world for multiple sclerosis patients. Additionally, I share new stories about how I have morphed from being a stunned, newly-diagnosed patient to an MS Activist who lobbies state and federal lawmakers on behalf of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
It’ll be quite the tonal shift to move from promoting a dark comedy about an alcoholic MAGA dad squaring off against his progressive, bookseller daughter just weeks after the presidential inauguration, to discussing the experiences of MS patients. I hope you’ll join me on what promises to be one bizarre ride.
In the predawn hours on the day after the election, I processed my angst through my writing. I submitted this piece to GirlTalkHQ and they graciously decided to publish it.
If you’re feeling the way I’m feeling, you likely need to cope with your grief, your anger, your dismay. This is for you.
Here’s how the piece begins:
They chose the rapist.
They empowered the serial, sexual abuser.
The one who famously values women only for how sexually attractive they are to him.
The one who hand-picked Supreme Court justices who then stole reproductive rights from American women, rights they’d previously sworn were safe.
The one who bragged about that revocation of reproductive rights, how he was responsible for turning the clock back fifty years. Who selected a running mate who assesses females based on their reproductive status and their usefulness for the tasks of bearing, raising, and caring for children.
Supporters of this presidential ticket openly laughed about how their opponent — a former prosecutor-state attorney general-US senator-vice president — was a prostitute who gave blow jobs in order to get ahead, that she worked street corners.
They called their competitor stupid. A bitch. A hoe. The c-word.
To read the rest, go to GirlTalkHQ.
Feeling stressed out about the US presidential election? Experiencing tension with friends or family members? You’re not alone.
@girltalkhq has published a sneak peek preview of my Feb. 2025 darkly comedic novel, Louie on the Rocks, about how Trump era politics exacerbated the estrangement between a retired MAGA dad and his progressive Millennial daughter.
Set in central Massachusetts, readers hear directly from a trio of narrators: Father Louie, daughter Lulu, and recently-deceased wife/mother Helen. Things get, shall we say, profane and heated.
Link here: https://www.girltalkhq.com/an-election-season-novel-for-those-trying-to-navigate-polarizing-times/
Meredith OBrien 