Keenly felt and elegantly written, this is a moving and sad account of a family that despiteor perhaps because ofall its power and wealth was profoundly troubled. Although Schvey shows contempt for his closest relatives, he paints balanced portraits of each of them. Their very humanness makes the book all the more tragic, touching, and affecting. Schvey's sharp-edged humorparticularly when capturing the dialogue and mannerisms of his Jewish grandparents who tried to help saves the author from wallowing in self-pity and gives a nice counterpoint to the particularly virulent form of illness called adolescence that he lived through and overcame. A kind of nonfiction Portnoy's Complaint but with a lot less sex; intricately renders a dysfunctional family's life in the mid-20th century. Kirkus Reviews
The Poison Tree is a tantalizing coming of age memoir that painstakingly recalls the joys and pains of a boy's passage into celebrated manhood. A.E.Hotchner
This 'Remembrance of Things Past' is neither 'sweet' nor 'silent,' and I cite that sonnet because Henry Schvey's mother quotes Shakespeare frequently and his father is a character straight out of one of the tragicomediestempestuous, driven, hateful and hate-filled yet kind. Their son's memoir is closely watched and keenly heard: a riveting account of childhood and young manhood from the wounded adult who survives. Nicholas Delbanco is the author, most recently, of the novel The Years
With chilling accuracy, Henry Schvey reveals the cruelty that simmered beneath the seemingly placid surface of 1950s America. If you are a boomer who looks back on your childhood with nostalgia, if you saw Mad Men on TV and wished you could have lived in an era when the men looked and acted like Don Draper or Roger Sterling, The Poison Tree will both feed and cure your longing. With artistry and skill, wisdom and compassion, Schvey exposes not only his complicated relationship to his highly successful but sadistic father, but also the ways in which literature, art, and love can save a young man's soul. Eileen Pollack , Professor, MFA Program in Creative Writing, University of Michigan
Wickedly funny and heartbreaking in turn, this incisive and ironic sweep of his family's foibles and the America of the 60's 70's and 80's makes for compulsive reading. This is writing from a master of the genre which deserves a wide readership. Hugely enjoyable and compelling. Jane Lapotaire , Royal Shakespeare Company Hon Associate Artist, Tony Award, Helen Hayes and Olivier Award winner
The Poison Tree is a stunningly evocative portrait of what it means to be a son of a violent father, and the quiet forces that can shape a boy for life. Richly detailed, surprisingly funny, and always deeply felt, this book conjures Schvey's life as vividly as a stage play, from his childhood in the uppermost echelons of 1950s New York to the most tender reflections of a grown man looking back. Moving, complex, and deeply charming. Kea Wilson , author of We Eat Our Own
Richly detailed, painfully honest, yet by turns touching and humorous, Henry Schvey's The Poison Tree is a masterful memoir that tells the tale of a particular life but manages to speak for and to every life. Gerald Early , Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters, Washington University, and author of Daughters: On Family and Fatherhood
In this emotionally intimate memoir Henry Schvey proves that art is in the details. Reading The Poison Tree is like watching a great stage drama enacted on a meticulously designed set in which all of the principal players surprise us with the deep register of their flaws and fortitude. Kathleen Finneran , author of The Tender Land
