Dead End Gene Pool

A Memoir

By: Wendy Burden

Narrated by: Coleen Marlo

For generations the Burdens were one of the wealthiest families in New York, thanks to the inherited fortune of Cornelius "The Commodore" Vanderbilt. By 1955, the year of Wendy Burden's birth, the Burdens had become a clan of overfunded, quirky and brainy, steadfastly chauvinistic, and ultimately doomed bluebloods on the verge of financial and moral decline - and were rarely seen not holding a drink.

In Dead End Gene Pool, Wendy invites listeners to meet her tragically flawed family, including an uncle with a fondness for Hitler, a grandfather who believes you can never have enough household staff, and a remarkably flatulent grandmother. At the heart of the story is Wendy's glamorous and aloof mother, who, after her husband's suicide, travels the world in search of the perfect sea and ski tan, leaving her three children in the care of a chain-smoking Scottish nanny, Fifth Avenue grandparents, and an assorted cast of long-suffering household servants (who Wendy and her brothers love to terrorize).

Rife with humor, heartbreak, family intrigue, and booze, Dead End Gene Pool offers a glimpse into the fascinating world of old money and gives truth to an old maxim: The rich are different.

©2010 Wendy Burden (P)2010 Tantor

Critic reviews

"In this dark and humorous memoir Wendy Burden takes us inside the family circus that was her side of the Vanderbilt dynasty, bringing American class structure, sibling rivalry and the decline of the bluebloods vividly to life." (Gus Van Sant)

"This blueblood tale is spun so deftly and so charmingly that it is easy to forget that this it is essentially a sad story of family neglect and degeneration. Burden joins the ranks of such memoirists as Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris, who have successfully mined their dysfunctional childhoods for comedic gold." ( Booklist)

What a read!

Juicy, fascinating, and tragic!
A complete pleasure to listen to.
I put off reading/listening to this book after it was recommended to me by my husband; I really wish I hadn’t waited.
If you’re into dynastic lineage stories, this book is for you. Wendy’s descriptive, and sometimes hilarious, language made this story hard not to binge.
Why hasn’t this been adapted for film!?

Fun romp, terrible narration

I am loving this story. How else could us average folks peep into the world of the formerly uber-rich blue bloods of the robber baron era? Wendy Burdon deftly manages to report on her family's dysfunction with loving and hilarious portraits and vignettes. HOWEVER, where did poor Audible find this narrator, and how many people listened to this before it was approved?? Marlo refers to Dusty Springfeild's Wishing and Hoping as Wishing and Hopping, prounounces Schlumberger like a burger from the slums, completely mangles French accents, etc. Fingernails on the blackboard... Wendy B, you deserved far better than this! Next time, please read it yourself. You'd not only do it better, but presumably save a few bucks, too!

Great story, delivery could use improvement.

What an amazing tale. Family tree begins with the rise of Cornelius Vanderbilt and gets more irreverent and hilarious from there. Wonderfully written, darkly funny memoir. If you like to look at the underbelly of the super-rich, blue-bloods in particular, this one's for you. Sadly the narrator mispronounces soooooooooooo many words it is rather distracting. But I can make no fault with the story itself. So crazy it could only be true.

Great story, delivery could use improvement.

What an amazing tale. Family tree begins with the rise of Cornelius Vanderbilt and gets more irreverent and hilarious from there. Wonderfully written, darkly funny memoir. If you like to look at the underbelly of the super-rich, blue-bloods in particular, this one's for you. Sadly the narrator mispronounces soooooooooooo many words it is rather distracting. But I can make no fault with the story itself. So crazy it could only be true.

Get a narrator who can pronounce things properly!

My enjoyment of this book was significantly diminished by the 20 (yes I counted and annotated them) pronunciation errors made by the narrator. As for the story, Ms Burden's accounting of her life as the granddaughter of Wm A Burden brings to light just how screwed up the world of trust fund babies can be. Fascinating insight into a world often glamorized and envied, but rarely laid this bare. Well written and thoughtful, but please, get a narrator who can pronounce things properly!

Dusty Springfield sang "Wishin' and HOPIN' " as in HOPE-ing, not HOPPIN' which requires 2 Ps.

JUMPER! not JUNIPER! Sheesh!

Tenerife /ˌtenəˈrif/ NOT Tener-EE-fay

The word is pronounced NAY-cent, not NASS-ent

Steiff is pronounced STEEF not Sife

Göring pronounced GEHRING not GORE-ing

Möet is Mo-ETTE not Mo-AY

it's Mount Desert like the dry arid place not DESSERT like what you eat after dinner...

Men's hair product Vitalis is vye -TAL-us not vit-AL-is

Barium is BEAR-ee-um not BAR-ee-um

The color carmine = CAR-mine .... not. CAR-men

Gila monster is HEE-la monster, not. GILL-ah

Scottish plaids are Tar-Tin not Tar-TAN

It's WANT-en behavior. NOT won-ton like the soup.!

Dress designer is Mary Q-U-A-N-T. There is no I in it so it's not Quaint

Duco rubber cement is DUCO is pronounced DUE-COE (For DuPont Co) Duco is also a brand of nitrocellulose household cement (adhesive) originally trademarked by DuPont.

Once again nascent is NAY-cent not NASS-ent

Verboten is ver-BOAT-en, not ver-BOT-in

The work chasm is pronounced KAZ-em , not CHAZ-im

Such a rich listen…so glad I found it!!

I loved reading this because I grew up in the same era as Wendy and there were just so many references that are so relevant, it was a dose of nostalgia. No matter where we are on the wealth Spectrum some things are the same for all of us. Because we’re just kids. I really appreciated what she shared and also how she depicted the family honestly but with love. The narrator was fine, I don’t know what people were complaining about.

Self-indulgent garbage

Would you try another book from Wendy Burden and/or Coleen Marlo?

No. Wendy Burden is the most unsympathetic character. Coleen Marlo mispronounces words, like saying wonton instead of wanton.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Coleen Marlo?

Wendy Burden is so unsympathetic it would not matter who the narrator was.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Dead End Gene Pool?

I would have fought to have this book not published.

Distasteful story, bad narration

Hard to tell which is worse, this story of entitlement and dysfunction presented as witty or the narrator's inability to pronounce a lot of the proper names the author drops with such a thud.