Matthew Quick’s New Memoir Dad, Love, Me Is a Heart‑Opener Worth Reading

Today I want to take a moment to acknowledge and celebrate a book written by one of my closest friends, author Matthew Quick. Dad, Love, Me enters the world today, and I’ve had the privilege of watching this memoir take shape over many years of friendship, conversations, and quiet moments of truth.

This is a deeply personal book—raw, tender, and profoundly human. Matthew opens the door to his own past, sharing an unflinching exploration of an abusive parent, family pain, forgiveness, and the long, complicated search for redemption. It’s not an easy read, but it’s an important one. Keep a box of tissues nearby.

If you or someone you know has ever carried the weight of abuse, trauma, or emotional wounds from family, this memoir is a must‑read. Matthew’s courage in telling his story is not only a testament to his own healing, but a lifeline for others who may be quietly suffering and searching for a way forward.

I’m incredibly proud of my friend for putting this story into the world and others might begin their own journey toward healing.

From the Publisher:

Written in the form of a letter to his ailing father, this debut memoir from the bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook explores the complicated burden of caring for an abusive parent who is dying—here is Matthew Quick’s most personal and potent work to date.

“This book will gut you and then, somehow, put you back together.” —Scott Galloway • “Dad, Love, Me is a masterpiece….It will change people’s lives.” —Lori Gottlieb • “A gut punch of a memoir…What a gift this book is.” —Catherine Newman • “For all its heavy subject matter, the book has a remarkably light touch and sense of grace.” —Kirkus Reviews

On the surface, Matthew Quick seemed to have it all—a loving wife, a thriving career as a novelist, and a beautiful home. He’d traveled all over the world advocating for mental health awareness, standing before crowds as a success story. But secretly, he was depressed and some days, he didn’t want to live.

Years earlier, when he first told his father he wanted to be a novelist, the response was immediate and brutal: “Idiot!” That voice—angry and belittling—would echo through Quick’s mind for years. He channeled his pain into his debut novel, The Silver Linings Playbook, crafting a complex father-son dynamic drawn straight from his own life. The book became a New York Times bestseller and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. Still, the approval Quick longed for never came. His father remained cold and withholding. The deeper the rift between them grew, the deeper Quick sank into anxiety and addiction.

In this book, Quick takes readers deep into his psyche, as he wrestles with both his own mental health and his father’s cognitive decline. A health scare finally forces Quick to get sober, but then, overcome by creative paralysis, writer’s block threatens to end his career. The blank page is unbearable. As his desperation for healing peaks, Quick turns to a Jungian analyst he nicknames “Zeus.” In the safety of analysis, as Quick’s repressed pain and shame surface, he finally cracks. Just as he is putting himself back together, his father is diagnosed with dementia.

Suddenly, the clock is ticking. If there is ever going to be reconciliation, it has to happen now. Quick and his wife pack up their lives in coastal North Carolina, drive eight hours, and move into a house just around the corner from Quick’s parents, on an island right outside of Beaufort, South Carolina. There, as his father slips further and further away, Quick races to make a healing connection.

Dad, Love, Me is Quick’s raw, vulnerable, and deeply moving account of what it means to forgive a parent who never really knew how to love you. It’s about wounds that never fully heal, and the power of showing up anyway. This beautifully brave and life-affirming memoir is a must read for anyone who has been starved of love but wants to keep loving anyway.

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