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A Memoir of Family Dysfunction Awash in Liquor and Leafy Greens: In ​“The Spinach King,” John Seabrook recounts how his grandfather turned a family farm into an industrial behemoth, and exposes the greed and malfeasance behind the prosperous façade. 

‘The Spinach King’ Review: It Runs in the Family. C.F. Seabrook pioneered new agricultural processes and built his father’s farms into a major corporation along the way. He had a harder time sharing the reins with his son.

This week, don’t miss a collection spotlighting Vietnamese voices, the story of a troubled American dynasty, and a Pulitzer Prize – winning funny guy’s new memoir… 

The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by John Seabrook | W. W. Norton & Company. ​“Still have a Succession-shaped hole in your life? Then read this gripping real-life story of how a New Jersey family farming empire was torn apart by intergenerational conflict. A deeply personal look at his grandfather’s business, this is an epic American tale of capitalism, class tensions and racial exploitation in the 20th century.”

“Guy Davenport’s first New Books column hailed Anthony Bailey as ​“one of the most civilized of the old New Yorker writers” — a phrase that it would never occur to me to use. But I’ll trot it out for John Seabrook, who by now qualifies as an old New Yorker writer (on staff since ​’93), and whose memoir The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty (W. W. Norton, $31.99) argues that his family was, if anything, excessively civilized…”

The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by John Seabrook (June 3, W. W. Norton & Company). ​“Seabrook, a staff writer at the New Yorker, turns his investigative instincts on his family history. Despite its title, this isn’t quite a rags-to-riches (or riches-to-rags) story — everyone more or less starts humbly and ends comfortably, thanks to a fortune built from revolutionizing frozen food production. Or at least, everyone in Seabrook’s family does fine in this fascinating chronicle of American wealth and industry. But the book also provides an unflinching assessment of Seabrook’s grandfather’s contentious labor relations, not to mention the family’s bitter intergenerational struggles.”

“New Jersey’s Seabrook family, if less well known today than the Murdochs or the Redstones, had a Succession story every bit as dark, according to this captivating account. New Yorkerreporter Seabrook (The Song Machine), a scion of the family who plumbed its history while undergoing therapy and recovering from alcoholism — a disease he attributes to his lineage — traces the dynasty back to its founder, C.F. Seabrook (1881 – 1964)…”

Deftly weaving personal and commercial history to document the rise and fall of a towering agricultural enterprise. ​“Uncovering devastating family secrets. Seabrook, a New Yorker staff writer, set out to write the dramatic story of his family’s Seabrook Farms, dubbed by Life magazine as the ​“biggest vegetable factory on earth.” An elegant essayist and meticulous researcher, Seabrook drew on the voluminous diaries of his father, combed through decades of newspaper coverage, bank records, and litigation, and interviewed scores of former workers, business partners, and family members…”