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A carregar... Flyover Lives: A Memoirpor Diane Johnson
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Adira ao LibraryThing para descobrir se irá gostar deste livro. Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro. I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway. I'd like to apologize to the author for taking so long to post a review. I had a lot going on around my haven, including a new puppy and that has put me behind on my reading. This book was a tad different from my regular reading material (which varies). It took me a little while to grow an interest in the book, but as I continued through I began to enjoy it more. Diane Johnson is a wonderful writer and this book shares some of her family history along with stories from various parts of her life. There's a lot of nostalgia in the book that I could relate to despite the generation difference. I most enjoyed the parts about the summer house and teenage years. As she stated, it seems to be more of a travel book and though I struggled in the beginning I am glad that I completed it. I can understand some people's frustration but I don't understand the extremely low ratings. I believe it is worth the read and I appreciate the opportunity to do so. I don’t review books I don’t like; there is always the possibility that it is just me. So all I will say is that I did not like this book. I read it, cover to cover, but I had to force myself to keep reading. I didn’t take anything away from it. My favorite part was the beautiful cover. And that’s it. Apologies. Most likely it is just me. sem críticas | adicionar uma crítica
"From the New York Times bestselling author of Le Divorce, a dazzling meditation on the mysteries of the "wispy but material" family ghosts who shape us. Growing up in the small river town of Moline, Illinois, Diane Johnson always dreamed of floating down the Mississippi and off to see the world. Years later, at home in France, a French friend teases her: 'Indifference to history--that's why you Americans seem so naive and don't really know where you're from.' The j'accuse stayed with Johnson. Were Americans indifferent to history? Her own family seemed always to have been in the Midwest. Surely they had got there from somewhere? In digging around, she discovers letters and memoirs written by generations of stalwart pioneer ancestors that testify to more complex times than the derisive nickname 'The Flyover' gives the region credit for. With the acuity and sympathy that her novels are known for, she captures the magnetic pull of home against our lust for escape and self-invention. This spellbinding memoir will appeal to fans of Bill Bryson, Patricia Hampl, and Annie Dillard"-- Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — A carregar... GénerosSistema Decimal de Melvil (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Classificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos EUA (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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In the prologue called "A weekend with generals" Johnson sets out to tell how the remark of a French friend about Americans being "indifferent to history" causes her to investigate her forebears. However, Johnson finds it necessary to expound on the presence of two army generals and their wives at the moment her friend makes the remark. This was an early tip off of the name dropping later in the book.
Part II of the book chronicles Johnson's childhood in Moline, IL. To me the description of Johnson's youth was not very different from other small town children.
Finally, in part III, "Eighteenth- Century Beginnings" we read about the ancestors for a little more than 85 of the book's 263 pages. The biography of Catherine Martin (the author's great-great-great grandmother) is the most interesting part of the book. Hers is the kind of life we forget about with its frequent deaths, slow arduous travel, hard work and uncomfortable living quarters. Here I actually learned something.
In Part IV "Modern Days" we are back at Johnson's own life. This disturbed and confused me. Why does the author combine her memoir with the story about her ancestors many generations ago? I had a hard time changing from Catherine's toils to Johnson writing movie scripts with famous Hollywood denizens.
Here we see the main weakness of the book, it, tries to be two things at the same time: a historical biography and a personal memoir. With a little more research, especially about her own life Johnson could have managed two entirely different books. Add to that a total rewrite of the memoir, and the result would be much more the quality writing we have come to expect from Diane Johnson. ( )