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Author: James Conaway Publisher: ISBN: Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 236
Book Description
"James Conaway knew there was something wrong with his father before he let himself think about it. The signs were there, in unfocused phone calls and cryptic letters, but for a time they could be ignored. Finally, on a reporting trip to Memphis, his hometown, Conaway visited his parents and faced the facts: his father was sick; he was in the early stages of what proved to be Alzheimer's disease." "The dreaded illness is the inspiration for this beautifully written memoir of family and the South. As memory left his father, the author felt moved to recreate the world they had shared, to shore up as many fragments of the past as possible against oblivion." "As it happens, many of those fragments are outrageously funny. Memphis Afternoons takes us back to a 1950s society when the rules of southern gentlemanliness were still in effect, if only barely. This is a world where propriety had always fought a dubious battle with bourbon, and now was being defeated by the likes of Elvis Presley. With a rueful wit, Conaway artfully renders a youth of hunting and fishing trips, brawls, and debutante parties, of sexual and alcoholic and literary explorations. The story is told against a wistful background of another generation, his father's, told with a belated appreciation for that generation's ideals, hopes, and its diminished postwar reality." "Conaway writes of the idiosyncrasies of his family life with a keen yet tender sense of the absurd, particularly of a sometimes loving, mysterious relationship with his father. Linking the generations is an antiquated but powerful code of conduct, recalled here with extraordinary vividness and humor."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Author: James Conaway Publisher: ISBN: Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 236
Book Description
"James Conaway knew there was something wrong with his father before he let himself think about it. The signs were there, in unfocused phone calls and cryptic letters, but for a time they could be ignored. Finally, on a reporting trip to Memphis, his hometown, Conaway visited his parents and faced the facts: his father was sick; he was in the early stages of what proved to be Alzheimer's disease." "The dreaded illness is the inspiration for this beautifully written memoir of family and the South. As memory left his father, the author felt moved to recreate the world they had shared, to shore up as many fragments of the past as possible against oblivion." "As it happens, many of those fragments are outrageously funny. Memphis Afternoons takes us back to a 1950s society when the rules of southern gentlemanliness were still in effect, if only barely. This is a world where propriety had always fought a dubious battle with bourbon, and now was being defeated by the likes of Elvis Presley. With a rueful wit, Conaway artfully renders a youth of hunting and fishing trips, brawls, and debutante parties, of sexual and alcoholic and literary explorations. The story is told against a wistful background of another generation, his father's, told with a belated appreciation for that generation's ideals, hopes, and its diminished postwar reality." "Conaway writes of the idiosyncrasies of his family life with a keen yet tender sense of the absurd, particularly of a sometimes loving, mysterious relationship with his father. Linking the generations is an antiquated but powerful code of conduct, recalled here with extraordinary vividness and humor."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Author: James Conaway Publisher: ISBN: 9781310459283 Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
James Conaway knew there was something wrong with his father before he let himself think too deeply about it.The signs were there, in unfocused phone calls and cryptic letters. Then on a reporting trip to his hometown Conaway had to face facts: his father was in the early stages of Alzheimer's, a dreaded illness that inspired this beautifully written memoir of family and the South. As memory left his father, the author was moved to recreate the world they had shared, memory being the bulwark against oblivion.Many of these fragments are outrageously funny. The book takes us back to a society where the rules of southern gentlemanliness were still in effect, if barely. Propriety had always fought a dubious battle with bourbon, and now was being defeated by the likes of Elvis Presley and Jack Kerouc. With rueful wit Conaway artfully renders a youth of hunting and fishing giving way to brawling, debutante parties, and literary exploration. The story's told against a wistful background of an older generation with belated appreciation for its hopes, ideals and diminished postwar reality.Conaway writes of the idiosyncrasies of family life with a keen yet tender sense of the absurd, particularly the sometimes loving, mysterious relationship with his father. Linking the generations is an antiquated but powerful code of conduct, recalled here with extraordinary vividness and humor.Jim Lehrer in The Washington Post - "Profound... hilarious... honest and serious... proof that the gods look more favorably on some writers than they do on others... conaway moves through his family and life in Memphis in the '40s and '50s with the flow and grace of an impressionist painter."Tracy Kidder (Mountains Beyond Mountains, House) - "Exemplary... absorbing... sad and funny... It awakens our own memories, makes our own lives more available to us."Rick Bass (The Ninemile Wolves) "I'm crazy about this book, and implore the nation to read it... about the shuddering magnificence, the depthlessness, of the human heart."
Author: Tara M. Stringfellow Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback ISBN: 0593230507 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 289
Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • A spellbinding debut novel tracing three generations of a Southern Black family and one daughter’s discovery that she has the power to change her family’s legacy. “A rhapsodic hymn to Black women.”—The New York Times Book Review “I fell in love with this family, from Joan’s fierce heart to her grandmother Hazel’s determined resilience. Tara Stringfellow will be an author to watch for years to come.”—Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times bestselling author of Red at the Bone LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Boston Globe, NPR, BuzzFeed, Glamour, PopSugar Summer 1995: Ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father’s explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. This is not the first time violence has altered the course of the family’s trajectory. Half a century earlier, Joan’s grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass—only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life, but family secrets cast a longer shadow than any of them expected. As she grows up, Joan finds relief in her artwork, painting portraits of the community in Memphis. One of her subjects is their enigmatic neighbor Miss Dawn, who claims to know something about curses, and whose stories about the past help Joan see how her passion, imagination, and relentless hope are, in fact, the continuation of a long matrilineal tradition. Joan begins to understand that her mother, her mother’s mother, and the mothers before them persevered, made impossible choices, and put their dreams on hold so that her life would not have to be defined by loss and anger—that the sole instrument she needs for healing is her paintbrush. Unfolding over seventy years through a chorus of unforgettable voices that move back and forth in time, Memphis paints an indelible portrait of inheritance, celebrating the full complexity of what we pass down, in a family and as a country: brutality and justice, faith and forgiveness, sacrifice and love.
Author: Teresa R. Simpson Publisher: Arcadia Publishing ISBN: 1614234280 Category : True Crime Languages : en Pages : 134
Book Description
A journey through Memphis’ troubled past: the shocking crimes and the brutal killings that led to it being dubbed the “Murder Capital of the World.” With its alluring hospitality, legendary cuisine and transcendent music, Memphis is truly a quintessential Southern city. But lurking behind the barbeque and blue suede shoes is a dark history checkered with violence and disarray. Revisit the mass murder of 1866 that took more than fifty lives, the infamous Alice Mitchell case of the 1890s and a string of unthinkable twentieth-century sins. Author and lifelong Memphian Teresa Simpson explores some of the River City’s most menacing crimes and notorious characters in this riveting ride back through the centuries. Includes photos!
Author: Seth Abramson Publisher: Wesleyan University Press ISBN: 0819576751 Category : Poetry Languages : en Pages : 265
Book Description
BAX 2016: Best American Experimental Writing is the third volume of this annual literary anthology compiling the best experimental writing in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. This year's volume, guest-edited by Charles Bernstein and Tracie Morris, features seventy-five works by some of the most exciting American poets and writers today, including established authors—like Sina Queyras, Tan Lin, Christian Bök, Myung Mi Kim, Juliana Spahr, Samuel R. Delany, and even Barack Obama—as well as emerging voices. Intended to provoke lively conversation and debate, Best American Experimental Writing is an ideal literary anthology for contemporary classroom settings.
Author: Peter Guralnick Publisher: Little, Brown ISBN: 0316206792 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 729
Book Description
Written with grace, humor, and affection, Last Train to Memphis has been hailed as the definitive biography of Elvis Presley. It is the first to set aside the myths and focus on Elvis' humanity in a way that has yet to be duplicated. A New York Times Notable BookWinner of the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award "Elvis steps from the pages. You can feel him breathe. This book cancels out all others." --Bob Dylan From the moment that he first shook up the world in the mid 1950s, Elvis Presley has been one of the most vivid and enduring myths of American culture. Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley is the first biography to go past that myth and present an Elvis beyond the legend. Based on hundreds of interviews and nearly a decade of research, it traces the evolution not just of the man but of the music and of the culture he left utterly transformed, creating a completely fresh portrait of Elvis and his world. This volume tracks the first twenty-four years of Elvis' life, covering his childhood, the stunning first recordings at Sun Records ("That's All Right," "Mystery Train"), and the early RCA hits ("Heartbreak Hotel," "Hound Dog," "Don't Be Cruel"). These were the years of his improbable self-invention and unprecedented triumphs, when it seemed that everything that Elvis tried succeeded wildly. There was scarcely a cloud in sight through this period until, in 1958, he was drafted into the army and his mother died shortly thereafter. The book closes on that somber and poignant note. Last Train to Memphis takes us deep inside Elvis' life, exploring his lifelong passion for music of every sort (from blues and gospel to Bing Crosby and Mario Lanza), his compelling affection for his family, and his intimate relationships with girlfriends, mentors, band members, professional associates, and friends. It shows us the loneliness, the trustfulness, the voracious appetite for experience, and above all the unshakable, almost mystical faith that Elvis had in himself and his music. Drawing frequently on Elvis' own words and on the recollections of those closest to him, the book offers an emotional, complex portrait of young Elvis Presley with a depth and dimension that for the first time allow his extraordinary accomplishments to ring true. Peter Guralnick has given us a previously unseen world, a rich panoply of people and events that illuminate an achievement, a place, and a time as never revealed before.
Author: James Conaway
Author: James Conaway
Author: James Conaway
Author: Tara M. Stringfellow
Author: Teresa R. Simpson
Author: Seth Abramson
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Author: Memphis Evening Scimitar
Author: Peter Guralnick
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Author: