Sarah LaBrie Wrote Her Memoir "to Feel Like a River Breaking Off Into Tributaries"

I’ve been sitting too long on this wonderfully rich conversation that our Bottom Reader Book Club had in May with memoirist and TV writer Sarah LaBrie about her debut memoir No One Gets to Fall Apart—I’m so glad to finally share the recording with paid subscribers.

No One Gets to Fall Apart grapples with the toll that a mother’s mental illness takes on her daughter, its effects rippling outward to the family as a whole. The book’s subject matter is heavy, but Sarah’s approach is light—she deftly draws on literature and philosophy to bolster her narrative, while also taking the reader along her parallel journey of writing a “failed” novel. In our conversation, Sarah shared the evolution of the title for her memoir, talked about the way Houston still feels like home despite now being firmly rooted in Los Angeles, and also explained the inspiration for the branching structure of her book, which, yes, she envisioned “like a river breaking off into tributaries.” I found that image so striking!

You can listen to these book club recordings in the Substack app, in your web browser, or on Spotify¹. Subscribe to the show on Spotify to get notifications when new episodes are released. Recorded book club conversations are only available to paid subscribers, but the live book club sessions will continue to be free and open to all readers.

Thank you, Sarah, and the Bottom Readers who joined the call and asked such insightful questions! And thank you, Shira Muroff, for jumping in to facilitate this conversation with me at the last minute. Thanks again to our partners: Mississippi Book Festival, Lemuria Books, and Friendly City Books. The team at Red Squared recorded and produced this discussion at their studio in The Hangar.

Plan ahead and check out our upcoming book club picks!

August 6 at 7pm: World Without End: Essays on Apocalypse and After with author Martha Park

September 3 at 7pm: Before Elvis: The African American Musicians Who Made the King with author Preston Lauterbach and moderator Talamieka Brice

September 13: Don’t miss the Mississippi Book Festival!