Dumbfounded Big Money. Big Hair. Big Problems. or Why Having It All Isn't for Sissies.

“Funny and defiant.” –Los Angeles Times

In the privileged world of old-money New York aristocracy, young Matt Rothschild stuck out like a menorah at a Christmas party. Jewfroed, chubby, and sexually confused, Matt passed time secretly wearing his grandmother’s dresses, shoplifting Barbies from FAO Schwarz, and inventing imaginary midget butlers whom he addressed at dinner parties. Kicked out of nearly every elite school in Manhattan–once for his impersonation of Judy Garland at a recital–Matt knew his days in his nineteen-room Fifth Avenue apartment were numbered.

But just when it looked as if Matt was about to drown in a sea of Paris Hilton wannabes, his grandmother Sophie, a glamorous, potty-mouthed dowager in killer stilettos, steps in, dismisses the nanny, and decides to raise him herself. Seeing her grandson’s upbringing as a way to atone for the mistakes she made as a mother, Sophie takes his hand and guides him through their world of name-dropping phonies, family connections, and children who have to raise themselves. Gradually, Sophie allows Matt to learn the truth about the mother who left him, the woman who raised him, and the challenges we all face, no matter how exclusive or unusual our origins may seem.

Matt Rothschild tells his story with humor, candor, and unlikely compassion for his eccentric relatives–including his mother–in this bitingly entertaining and unexpectedly tender memoir.

“With genuine affection and brutal honesty, [Rothschild] paints vivid, delightful portraits of the colorful characters who crossed his path.” –USA Today