[3.5 stars rounded down]

Following four generations of a family business (ending with the author’s father in the 90s), The Spinach King is a deep dive into what it looked like to industrialize the farming industry in the mid-century, the ways an all-powerful patriarch can control a family and his business, and an airing out of the author’s family drama. I went into this book primarily for a story about industrialization, secondly to have some fun with running through his family’s drama, and I did not really care about any more memoir-ish sections of the novel. I think I got what I wanted out of it with an incredible narrative style and handling of facts throughout the whole book.

The book starts slowly. And kinda badly. We are introduced to JM Seabrook - the author’s father and the youngest son of his generation - as the author knew him in his adult years. We learn about his passion for horses and coach riding, his impressive collection of suits, and the home’s very large wine cellar. It all comes back nicely as we continue through the novel, but it is a very slow and (at the time) seemingly unnecessary beginning to the rest of the story. The end of Part One gets better as it sets up the speech that JM gave in memory of his father CF Seabrook and the struggle that he had in writing it (the author’s assistance to his father is the beginning of his writing of this book). As I said, I understand that this provides necessary characterization and some future context to the rest of the book, but I really did think about putting this down. There is no need to spend pages on talking about the expansive suit collection of his father, only to start talking next about the expansive wine collection of his father (or vice-versa). Push on, though, and the rest of the story, and the author’s narrative skills, really pick up.

After Part One, we get a full exploration of the family, going back to their ancestors in England (though we very swiftly move on from there). The author explores the crossing over ancestor, his plight in America, and how the family came to settle in Deep South Jersey. As I said earlier, I picked up this book mostly for the tale of industrialization and especially what it takes to industrialize a profession that feels so distant to industrialization. I felt that Seabrook gave the perfect amount of information to be understandable to someone very unfamiliar with these processes while staying concise and on-target. I am the type of person who enjoys the intense amount of details given, so I had no problem when the author started listing off specifics such as exactly how many acres of farm CF had installed the Skinner System (irrigation) onto and what crops it served. I also especially enjoyed the section on how the farm was commissioned by the US Government in WWII to bring dehydrated foods overseas for troops and how subsequently back home this led in part to the boom in frozen food purchases. However, if you’re more into the family secrets and rich people drama side of this book, this section will probably be decently boring to you (the same way that the details on courting and relationships later was to me). For me, though, this was exactly what I was looking for in this part of the story. I was impressed with how clear and concise he kept the writing while also never skimming over the interesting details. It’s a hard balance to make that I felt Seabrook hit perfectly.

The author is good at giving little glimpses of future chapters in earlier ones. We hear mentions of the workers strike several chapters before the author’s dive into its events. Part One ends with JM revealing the probable stroke his father experienced, but it does not come up again until much later in the story. It is good at both building up on the semi-framing device of the first part and keeping the readers’ attention.

One aspect that I was not expecting was the amount of historical and developmental story about the area and its people. Seabrook Farms was nearly (essentially) a company town. Workers paid rent to housing that the Seabrooks owned, roads and buildings were built by the Seabrooks’ engineering company, and workers sent their children to the newly built school that the Seabrooks had set up. They ran the entire county. Coupling this with the fact that nearly all of their workers were either (mostly European) immigrants, Black Americans moving from the South, and Japanese Americans following their time in internment camps during WWII, the Seabrooks (especially CF in this regard) held a very high amount of control over their workers. The author is not afraid to discuss his father’s and grandfather’s treatment of these workers, their poor wages and living conditions, the ways that they played the different groups off of each other through segregation and obvious preferences, or the differing ways that they and their descendants view Seabrook Farms (the speech that concludes Part One was given to groups of Japanese Americans honoring CF’s memory, for instance). This all came to head in a long strike by the Seabrook workers and the subsequent strike breaking enacted by the family and their hired hands. There was so much more depth and interesting parts of this section that I really was not expecting and I was impressed by the skill of the author in compiling it all in such a great order. There was never too much information given too quickly nor did it slog along in all the recollection.

It's unfortunate that I'm so uninterested in the love lives and dramas of these rich people that, even though I can acknowledge that he still writes these sections well, I'm bored. The skill in writing these accounts is still very strong and perfectly detailed, but it’s just not my favorite topic in the world. I try not to hold that too much against the book, as it is definitely a preference thing to me, but I also rate largely based on my own enjoyment. Still, anyone who is interested in the ways that the heir to a large mid-century American family business spends his time in NYC, starts a relationship with a notable actress, is invited to fancy events including the wedding of the Prince of Monaco, and so forth, will enjoy Seabrook’s telling of these events. It also becomes interesting later to compare this JM to the older JM we meet at different points in the novel. For me, though, it becomes a bit of a bore to read about the initial courting and first dates of the actress by JM, followed by the initial courting and dates of the author’s mother by JM.

The novel ends on a weird tone. I get that the point is to show off where the generation is now and honoring the next one as a part of the saga, but it rubbed me the wrong way how the author tied in his family’s guilt to how they treated their black workers in the past with his choice to adopt a black toddler from Haiti (especially when he mentioned that she would be leaving her biological mother behind). I don’t want to let my own dislike of white people going to other countries to adopt not white children get in the way of my review - the author is a grown man, he can do what he wants - but it left a bad taste in my mouth personally. I thought that the section prior to this where he discusses his alcoholism following his father’s death to be a much stronger end point, especially with how he relates it back to his father’s wine cellar and his grandfather’s own abuse of substances, and I wish he had kept it with that.

Overall, a fun novel if you know that you will be interested in one of its two main parts (industrialization or rich people drama and family secrets). Seabrook writes very skillfully throughout. The audiobook is done by Dion Graham who is one of the best ever, so I highly recommend it if that’s your style.

John Seabrook’s memoir is a story of family legacy with the weight of inheritance in all its forms: emotional, material, and generational.
The Spinach King, refers to his eccentric father, who once built a frozen vegetable empire, before mental illness and time unraveled his grip on both his business and his family. Seabrook sifts through old documents, letters, and memories to reconstruct not just his father's unraveling, but also the complex web of class, greed, ambition, and denial that shaped his family’s American dream.
I found it interesting to read about Seabrook Farms because I grew up nearby and was familiar with the towns and the geography of South Jersey, along with the corrupt politicians people talked about. I even remember the packaging of the Seabrook Farms frozen creamed spinach we bought at the local grocery store.
The narrative is introspective, balancing journalistic precision with raw emotional honesty. Seabrook, best known for his work in The New Yorker, brings a journalist’s curiosity to his own family’s past—treating it like a case study in privilege, dysfunction, and fading aristocracy. He captures the racist and class prejudices of his father, the quiet resilience of his mother, and his own place as a son caught between admiration and resentment.
Also included are minute details about crops: the growth rates, planting dates, etc. which can be a little dry. However, the excellent narrator, Dion Graham, made it easy to listen to. He made it seem as if John Seabrook was talking directly to the reader / listener.
The Spinach King succeeds as both a personal memoir and a subtle critique of the American elite’s contradictions: its love of order and appearances, its silence around mental health, and its unspoken rules of legacy. It’s a slow burn—but one that leaves a lasting impression.

Very interesting nonfiction book about the rise and fall of the Seabrook family from New Jersey that created a frozen vegetable empire.. The narrator did a great job as well. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for a chance to read and review this book in exchange for an honest review.

A fascinating tale of American excess and family backstabbing reminiscent of “Succession.” The author is the grandson and son of the book’s main adversaries. Rather than focusing on exposing his dark family secrets, I wish the author had offered more self-reflections on his life of privilege and how family dysfunction affected him—to be sure, there were hints, I just wanted more.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book of family drama had me hooked! First, we learn the history of the Seabrook family of NJ and their start and demise of their farm. It’s so well-written, I really didn’t want to pause. You really feel like you’re with the family at some intense moments. I highly recommend this memoir!

As a UK reader ( listener), I found this account absolutely gripping. The narration throughout was excellent and what I thought might be rather dull turned into a truly illuminating peek into a side of America that was new to me. I’d never heard of the Seabrook family; interesting to note their British origins, well researched by the author. I certainly knew little about spinach, asparagus and salad crop production and found the industrial farming aspect incredible. From ‘bootstrap’ beginnings, this dynasty grew into one of the largest producers in the world. The scale is beyond imagination almost, but development of the farming came at a cost. Japanese POWs, former doctors, business people etc herded into concentration camp conditions and paid 50c an hour for long days with one day off a fortnight. Appalling conditions which applied to other workers too. Uncomfortable truths began to emerge and made parts of this a very difficult story to take in. Whilst one side of the Seabrook family was living in almost unimaginable wealth, well into the late 20th century, their employees were struggling in poor conditions on low pay and with a labour force reliant upon migrant workers.

Seabrook deals with this aspect well; he recognises the conflict, doesn’t ignore it and leaves it to the reader to make their own judgement. The family was always aware of the ‘clogs to clogs in three generations’ saying and the fallout was almost inevitable. The patriarchs were cold and often insensitive and it’s to the author’s credit that he’s broken the mould. I particularly enjoyed the detail around pad the home life in the mid to late 20th century. A house built with extraordinary wealth had carriages and horses for competitive carriage riding, along with mechanical wardrobes that held hundreds of garments. An idiosyncratic and rather obsessive collection, but fascinating nevertheless. A great story, well to,d and I enjoyed it immensely over a couple of sittings.

This one was both more and less enjoyable than I’d anticipated it being, which is a feeling I don’t often have.

The start of the book had great momentum, but as the story progressed into the more recent generations and the legal battle, things got more cloudy and less easy to track.

I think that what made this book so tough was that there is so much information, and much of it had 4 truths moving through it at once, especially as Seabrook began mentioning the current day perspectives of how employees were treated through more diverse lenses. There’s also the through line of sharing things that you feel are wrong, but that have benefited you greatly. This takes a nuanced approach, and whole Seabrook had a good go at it, I’m not sure it was the best possible attempt.

It seems that he thrives much more in short-form publications, and this felt like a situation that was more than could be handled from someone with a direct through line to the start of it all.

An interesting look into the family behind a big name in farming.

The book is written about the author’s own family. It’s full of extra details that only a family member would know. I like that it connects people to the author, for example by his saying “my grandfather.” That helps make the story real. The evolution of farming with the introduction of irrigation and “truck farming.” I particularly enjoyed the discussions about production during and after wars.

The biggest negative for me was the glossing over certain things. Black workers lived in tents. The book mentions one black worker that had lived in a tent there for 20 years. That person is never mentioned again. Did he get moved into the other housing? Did he continue working on the farm? It seems that black workers were just thrown into the book to show that different races worked on the farms. The writing is almost defensive of the fact that his ancestors were anti-Semitic and racist. Frankly, the book is full of family gossip. I was expecting more information on the farm, not name dropping and discussions about fur coats and horse drawn carriages.

It’s an interesting read if you’re into family drama. This book isn’t for you if you’re hoping for a non-fiction book about a topic you don’t know much about aka spinach farming.

<u><b>The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty</b></u>
John Seabrook
Narrator: Dion Graham
Release Date: June 24, 2025

ALC courtesy of HighBridge Audio and NetGalley.

Well, I enjoy John Seabrook in The New Yorker, and Dion Graham is one of my favorite audiobook narrators, so picking up this audiobook was a no-brainer, and it did not disappoint. John Seabrook is a gifted storyteller, and this time he writes about his own family, an expose on the family business, started by his grandfather, C.F., and follows its growth into an agricultural empire. We are taken into the privileged world of WASP aristocracy and hobnob with celebrities like Eva Gabor. We also see the dark side of American business, with the exploitation of immigrant workers, black laborers, and Japanese Americans from WWII internment camps, to the violence of Ku Klux Klan strikebreakers employed by C.F. One of my top non-fiction reads of the year so far!