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Overview
In this emotional and laugh-out-loud coming-of-age memoir, the co-creator of Hulu's brilliant Pen15 grapples with the reappearance of her estranged father--and whether it's possible to reconnect before it's too late. "Anna Konkle is generous enough to bring her comic sensibilities to a story that could have well have been a tragedy. She speaks for all the 'sane ones' out there who never agreed to play that part."--Amy Sedaris Throughout Anna Konkle's childhood, her father was her hero--a hyper-charismatic, larger-than-life human resource manager at 7-Eleven. But their closeness was constantly interrupted by the screaming matches and heavy silences between him and her mother, eventually culminating in a bitter divorce that literally split the family house down the middle, with one parent on each side. College felt like freedom, and Anna filled her time searching for the husband she'd never divorce and the orgasm she'd never had, while waiting tables at fancy restaurants and getting lackluster acting gigs, the strangest of which had her working celebrity Halloween parties. But just as she begins to thrive, her father starts to struggle. Not long after she moves to LA to pursue acting and writing, her dad's increasingly erratic behavior forces her to cut off contact with him, until, years later, he knocks at her door. Written in intimately beautiful prose, The Sane One is a tragicomic memoir of growing up, falling apart, getting older, and trying to come back together while there's still time.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9780593243992
- ISBN-10: 0593243994
- Publisher: Random House
- Publish Date: May 2026
- Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.95 pounds
- Page Count: 368
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In Anna Konkle’s affecting debut memoir, The Sane One, the co-creator and co-star of the Hulu series PEN15 chronicles a New England girlhood and fumbling young adulthood shaped by her parents’ disharmonic marriage and contentious divorce.
The book opens with Konkle reuniting with her father, Peter, five years after their relationship imploded. Peter is in Los Angeles to undergo tests for cancer. Equipped with a new perspective provided by therapy, Konkle hopes to mend their relationship. From there, Konkle rewinds to her coming of age in Massachusetts. Like the storytelling in PEN15, Konkle’s memoir seamlessly balances cringeworthy, laugh-out-loud humor with gut-punching introspection and reflection. Konkle describes her adolescent years in memorable detail, including battling a seventh grade rumor that she’d masturbated with an ice cube and drunkenly sneaking into her best friend’s house in high school.
Throughout, Konkle’s nuanced relationships with Peter and her mother, Janet, form the book’s axis. At an early age, Konkle recognized her parents’ dysfunction, which often resulted in explosive arguments. After they divorced when Konkle was 13, Peter’s conspiratorial, easygoing charm was a needed reprieve from Janet’s bad nights, where she stalked Konkle around the house, screaming and throwing things. As an NYU undergraduate, Konkle tried to shed her self-assigned role as her parents’ mediator, exploring romance and artistic expression. When her dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer, Konkle stepped up as his advocate, but Peter’s ensuing disrespect of personal boundaries damaged their relationship and, ultimately, influenced Konkle to go no contact.
Konkle’s writing is captivatingly intimate. The narrative exudes the warmth and familiarity of lifelong friends spilling secrets and comparing emotional bruises during a sleepover, long after the other guests have fallen asleep. What happens when we realize our parents are flawed? The Sane One is as much about surviving the unbearable awkwardness of adolescence as it is about finally seeing your parents for who they are—and recognizing that loving them doesn’t mean being their savior.
In Anna Konkle’s affecting debut memoir, The Sane One, the co-creator and co-star of the Hulu series PEN15 chronicles a New England girlhood and fumbling young adulthood shaped by her parents’ disharmonic marriage and contentious divorce.
The book opens with Konkle reuniting with her father, Peter, five years after their relationship imploded. Peter is in Los Angeles to undergo tests for cancer. Equipped with a new perspective provided by therapy, Konkle hopes to mend their relationship. From there, Konkle rewinds to her coming of age in Massachusetts. Like the storytelling in PEN15, Konkle’s memoir seamlessly balances cringeworthy, laugh-out-loud humor with gut-punching introspection and reflection. Konkle describes her adolescent years in memorable detail, including battling a seventh grade rumor that she’d masturbated with an ice cube and drunkenly sneaking into her best friend’s house in high school.
Throughout, Konkle’s nuanced relationships with Peter and her mother, Janet, form the book’s axis. At an early age, Konkle recognized her parents’ dysfunction, which often resulted in explosive arguments. After they divorced when Konkle was 13, Peter’s conspiratorial, easygoing charm was a needed reprieve from Janet’s bad nights, where she stalked Konkle around the house, screaming and throwing things. As an NYU undergraduate, Konkle tried to shed her self-assigned role as her parents’ mediator, exploring romance and artistic expression. When her dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer, Konkle stepped up as his advocate, but Peter’s ensuing disrespect of personal boundaries damaged their relationship and, ultimately, influenced Konkle to go no contact.
Konkle’s writing is captivatingly intimate. The narrative exudes the warmth and familiarity of lifelong friends spilling secrets and comparing emotional bruises during a sleepover, long after the other guests have fallen asleep. What happens when we realize our parents are flawed? The Sane One is as much about surviving the unbearable awkwardness of adolescence as it is about finally seeing your parents for who they are—and recognizing that loving them doesn’t mean being their savior.