Andrew McCarthy

“Brat: An '80s Story” (2022)

Fans of Patti Smith's Just Kids and Rob Lowe's Stories I Only Tell My Friends will love this beautifully written, entertaining, and emotionally honest memoir by an actor, director, and author who found his start as an 80s Brat pack member -- the inspiration for the Hulu documentary Brats, written and directed by Andrew McCarthy. Most people know Andrew McCarthy from his movie roles in Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo's Fire, Weekend at Bernie's, and Less than Zero, and as a charter member of Hollywood's Brat Pack. That iconic group of ingenues and heartthrobs included Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, and Demi Moore, and has come to represent both a genre of film and an era of pop culture. In his memoir Brat: An '80s Story, McCarthy focuses his gaze on that singular moment in time. The result is a revealing look at coming of age in a maelstrom, reckoning with conflicted ambition, innocence, addiction, and masculinity. New York City of the 1980s is brought to vivid life in these pages, from scoring loose joints in Washington Square Park to skipping school in favor of the dark revival houses of the Village where he fell in love with the movies that would change his life.

“Just Fly Away” (2017)

Apowerful story about family secrets, first love, the limits of forgiveness, and finding your way in the world. When fifteen-year-old Lucy Willows discovers that her father has a secret child from a brief affair, she begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her family. How could her father have betrayed them like this? How could her mother forgive him? And why isn’t her sister rocked by the news the way Lucy is? Lucy can’t bring herself to tell her friends, and when she tries to confide in her boyfriend, he doesn’t understand. Fed up with everyone around her and desperate for answers, Lucy runs away to Maine—the home of her mysteriously estranged grandfather—to get to the bottom of her family’s secrets and lies.  

“The Longest Way Home: One Man's Quest for the Courage to Settle Down” (2013)