
"A memoir of a city, an industry, and a dynasty in decline, and the story of a young artist's struggle to find her way out of the ruins. Frances Stroh's earliest memories are ones of great privilege: shopping trips to London and New York, lunches served by black-tied waiters at the Regency Hotel, and a house filled with precious antiques, which she was forbidden to touch. Established in Detroit in 1850, by 1984 the Stroh Brewing Company had become the largest private beer fortune in America and a brand emblematic of the American dream itself; while Stroh was coming of age, the Stroh family fortune was estimated to be worth $700 million. But behind the beautiful façade lay a crumbling foundation. Detroit's economy collapsed with the retreat of the automotive industry to the suburbs and abroad and likewise the Stroh family found their wealth and legacy disappearing"--Publisher's description.
Publisher:
New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2016]
Edition:
First edition
ISBN:
9780062393159
0062393154
0062393154
Branch Call Number:
B St874S 2016
Characteristics:
vi, 314 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm



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Add a CommentThank goodness I got this from the library. The entire family seems like wasted lives. Unhappy marriages, everyone smokes too much, drinks too much and half have done more than a fair share of drugs. All living off the dividends from the family business. The beginning was interesting, learning about the family and business, then come the teen age years of teenagers having access to too much money or friends with too much money, and the book goes down hill from there.
This book is disappointing. Despite the premise, the author shows surprisingly limited insight about the effects of inherited wealth on her family. Big questions are left largely unexplored--for example, the reasons why her brother became a drug dealer in college. There are also large stretches of the book where it's not clear to what extent she was able to rely on the family fortune, for example as a college student and a young adult. The writing itself is lackluster as well.