Book Description
Modeled after the famous Freedom Trail, Boston's new Literary Trail spans three hundred years and writers ranging from Cotton Mather to John Updike. In the nineteenth century, Boston was the cultural center, intellectual hub, and literary mecca of the United States. Among the heroes of this era were such household names as Louisa May Alcott, Thoreau, Longfellow, Emerson, Hawthorne, and Julia Ward Howe. The great arc linking Boston, Cambridge, and Concord was also the spawning ground for such giants of the modern era as Kahlil Gibran, Willa Cather, Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost, Eugene O'Neill, e. e. cummings, and a remarkable number of others.
This unusual guidebook features lively snippets of the writers' own works along with short essays by well-known contemporary writers, including Julia Child on Fannie Farmer, David McCullough on Francis Parkman, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., on W.E.B. Du Bois, and Jane Langton on the "importance of whiskers."
The Literary Trail encompasses both walking and driving tours, the latter by car, public transportation, and Literary Tour buses. Among the landmarks "off the beaten path" are Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge (Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and many others), Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain (e. e. cummings and Anne Sexton), and Sleepy Hollow in Concord (Hawthorne, Emerson, and the Alcotts).
Customer Reviews:
You'll hop in your car before you finish!.......2000-07-12
Susan Wilson has done a wonderful job writing essentially a "travel" book in an approachable and compelling style. Her instructions and "trails" are clear and logical and take you into some of the prettiest areas in Boston and the surrounding towns. Yet while she is directing you in and among the alleyways, Wilson manages to weave a compelling history of characters and places that has you heading for your local library to check out long-forgotten authors. I've drawn up a whole "Boston" reading list to reacquaint myself with some old friends and maybe make some new ones.
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Picture Book of Eleanor Roosevelt
David A. Adler
Manufacturer: Live Oak Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
United States
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Adler, David A.
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ASIN: 1591127548 |
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The Beardsley Industry: The Critical Reception in England and France 1893 to 1914
Jane Haville Desmarais
Manufacturer: Ashgate Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Beardsley, Aubrey
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ASIN: 1840142057 |
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- Grumpy Old Stoners
- So Much For the Golden Years
- Crunchy on the outside, soft at the core
- Taking a walk on the "wild"& unique side...
- Comic romp and frightening parable wrapped into one
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Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty
Tim Sandlin
Manufacturer: Riverhead Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1594489335
Release Date: 2007-01-18 |
Book Description
It's 2023, and Guy Fontaine is an unwilling new resident at Mission Pescadero, an assisted-living facility outside San Francisco. It doesn't take him long to realize that his fellow residents have reverted to the lifestyles they embraced in the sixties, complete with sex, drugs, and rock and roll (with a little Viagra thrown in for good measure). The Mission Pescadero staff, and the world outside, would like nothing more than to forget these aging hippies, but the residents want-no, demand-to be treated with respect and dignity. And they'll fight for it. When one resident's prohibited cat is discovered by Mission Pescadero's domineering administrator, the resulting confrontation mushrooms into an epic battle between authority and anarchy, complete with twenty-four-hour media coverage and the involvement of California's governor, Drew Barrymore. As tensions escalate, Guy finds himself cast as an unlikely radical in a drama he doesn't understand.
By turns outrageous, hilarious, and, ultimately, touching, Tim Sandlin's new novel is a fascinating exploration of how the baby boomers are facing their own mortality. Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty is Sandlin at his iconoclastic best.
Customer Reviews:
Grumpy Old Stoners.......2007-08-14
As much as I would love to take credit for that descriptive title, I cannot. That is merely another gem from Tim Sandlin.
If you enjoy reading a well written, entertaining, laugh out loud funny book with a whole lot of heart then you are in luck because "Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty" will deliver on all counts.
So Much For the Golden Years.......2007-08-03
I must admit to being a big fan of Tim Sandlin, ever since "Sex and Sunsets" he has had my attention. This book is way to close to my age group and Tim is too young to know all the 60's music references. Scary as the prospect of my future in an "assisted living" facility may be, send me to this spot, I want to sit between the two Sunshines, I think I met one of them at the Fillmore at a Paul Butterfield Concert many years ago. Congrats to Tim, this hilarious book has a brutal honest side that is longer than Jerry Garcia's beard.
Crunchy on the outside, soft at the core.......2007-05-19
In this old-age romp, Sandlin turns his sharp satirical talents loose while doing that other thing that hilarious satirists can't always do -- empathy. Sandlin is able to both poke fun at sentimentality and yet he has a soft touch too; when these old peeps aren't expsoing their rear ends in mass-moonings, they expose their sadnesses, bewilderments, regrets, and disappointments at the lives behind and in front of them. The best part of JHT80 is the highly refreshing take on stereotypes of old age: the wisdom, feeblemindedness and bloody boringness with which old people are often relegated don't feature here. These old folks stick it to that portrayal and fling an adult diaper at anyone who ever says growing old means acting like it.
Taking a walk on the "wild"& unique side..........2007-04-02
All "baby boomers" should read this book. The references to the sixties and people and places of the time are nostalgic. The honesty about situations that the elderly of our generation are realistically written about. Alot of food for thought, I enjoy the authors writing style.
Comic romp and frightening parable wrapped into one.......2007-03-08
It's 2022, Jenna Bush is President, Gulf War VI is going on, and Gen Xers are warehousing their aging boomer parents in "assisted living" communities and taking control of their money under false pretenses.
Guy Fontaine, a retired sportswriter from Oklahoma, has moved in with his daughter, Claudia, in California after the death of beloved wife Lily. But when he has a senior moment--he hallucinates and drives a golf cart onto the freeway--he is locked up in Mission Pescadero, an assisted living community that encapsulates the frightening world Sandlin posits for our future. An evil administrator runs the place with all the humanity of the worst lunch lady in the boomers' past, peopling it with patients brought in on the flimsiest diagnoses of dementia, with residents going "through the tunnel" to the nursing wing on even flimsier diagnoses by her corrupt doctor/near lover, where they are drugged comatose and quiet.
The Mission's population is mainly leaders of the leftist movements of the Sixties, who have created a hierarchy based on when and what they did in the decade that you're only supposed to have been there if you've forgotten it. Guy, straight, drug-free and monogamous all his life, finds himself struggling to adjust with the proponents of free love and drug use in the golden years. But when the administrator discovers one patient has--shudder--a cat in his room, Guy is driven to violence to defend someone who had befriended him, setting off a revolt to liberate the Mission.
Sandlin carries this absurd yet realistic situation with aplomb, showing real understanding of the concerns and difficulties faced by old people, as well as the trends of society that, if left unchecked, could lead to a world like the one he imagines here. Even minor characters are given some depth and the good lines are dispersed amongst them. Guy's unconventional romance with Rocky is counterpointed by other love stories, from a lesbian encounter between one of the youngest residents and a yoga instructor to an alley cat of a man who doesn't realize he has terrible breath. Even the villains are given some back story and some sympathy. And all to the tunes of Jefferson Airplane and The Who.
My favorite character is a woman who comes out of a drug-induced coma to lead the revolution, barking orders in a remarkably cogent and prepared manner, which foreshadows revelations about her character that end up shocking the residents and prolonging their isolation. Full confession: I once met a woman who might have been a model for this character while doing work in a prison. Sandlin has the type down perfectly.
He also has the good sense to provide a bittersweet ending, reminding us that mortality and fragility occur even among the worthy.
Whether the book will become non-fiction, as Sandlin predicts, is really up to all of us.
Book Description
Riotte explains siting a pond, maintaining water quality, troubleshooting, stocking with fish, plus plenty of old-time fishing lore and scrumptious fresh fish recipes.
Customer Reviews:
Ponds.......2007-01-22
This was an excellent book for information on our pond. We will find it and the references inside very useful!
Not Very Helpful.......2000-10-18
I found that this book would have been helpful for pond plants or if I needed a recipe to cook something I had raised in a pond, but I wanted information on keeping fish in a pond. Specifically I was interested in catfish, and silly me, I 'judged the book by its cover.' This book provides very little helpful infomation on raising pond fish as a hobby. If you're interested in spending several thousand dollars to commercially raise fish such as trout, then this book has something to offer. Otherwise don't bother.
A poetic account of country living........1998-05-12
This is a beautifully written book! It contains many whimsical anecdotes on the process of building a pond, also much practical information on plants, fish, frogs, turtles, and ducks. Having just built a pond, I found this book just the ticket. It doesn't have much about the actual digging and construction--that information is best obtained from your local Soil and Water Conservation Office. But I highly recommend this book if you're building a "real" pond (not one of those plastic pool things).
Bad Rodale Books revisited. Where's the meat?.......1998-03-17
Mostly touchy feely pointless antedotes. At most one page of useful information.
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Fishes of Oklahoma
Rudolph J. Miller , and
Henry W. Robison
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Fishes of Arkansas
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Freshwater Fishes of Mexico
ASIN: 0806136103 |
Product Description
The fishes of Oklahoma is published by the Oklahoma State University Press for the Oklahoma State University Museum of Natural and Cultural History Natural History Series-Number 1
Product Description
August 1988. U.S Fish and Wildlfie Service.
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Clowns of the Hopi: Tradition Keepers and Delight Makers
Barton Wright
Manufacturer: Kiva Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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The Book of the Hopi
ASIN: 1885772327 |
Customer Reviews:
Send in the Clowns!.......2005-07-08
What would our world be like without clowns? Let's hope we'll never have to experience such a time. The subtitle of this book describes the dual role of clowns in Hopi life and religion. Clowns are (both): "tradition keepers and delight makers". To the Hopi, clowns are more than just circus entertainers. To be sure, they function as slap-stick merry makers to the delight of the gathered crowds, but they are much more. From the Koshare (Tewa clown) to the Koyemsi (Mudhead) to the Kwikwilyaka (Mocking katsina) and the dozens of other clowns described by the author, the Hopi clowns serve as teachers who share valuable lessons about both the good and bad in mankind. Their role, as "tradition keepers" is critical to the Hopi way of life. Barton Wright does an excellent job of sharing the background and purpose of a wide variety of clowns. At one point Mr Wright describes them as the "caretakers" or "fathers" of the people and other kachinas. Such insight is critical to one's understanding of the Hopi, their customs and their dances. This is an excellent resource for anyone interested in Hopi legend and history or for the collector of Hopi art. The photographs and sketches contained in this 2004 publication were lacking in both quality and detail. The sketches are primative and most photos contain examples from the 1970's rather than the highly detailed carvings of 1990 and beyond. With this in mind, my rating dropped from "5" to a "4". Overall, the book is one which I would recommend for any Hopi library.
Book Description
This superb guide uses specially commissioned color photographs and diagrams to clearly explain the basic pruning procedures. All the popular plants suitable for pruning or training are covered in the authoritative text. Diagrams and photographs combine to give a detailed visual reference of what a plant should look like before, during, and after pruning care.
Ornamentals: roses, deciduous and evergreen trees, shrubs, climbers, wall shrubs, hedges and topiary, pinch pruning
Fruit Trees: apples and pears, plums, cherries, peaches, apricots, figs, renovating fruit trees, plus many more
Soft Fruits and Vines: gooseberries, currants, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and cranberries, grapes, passion fruit, kiwi fruit
The book also features:
300 step-by-step color diagrams to guide readers through a year-long agenda of what to do, when, and how
Superb color photographs showing plants that are pruned or trained to look their best through all seasons
A-Z plant directories for quick reference to practical advice
Complete cross-references to detailed instructions
Tools and equipment
A glossary of technical terms plus further reading and a comprehensive index
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The Complete Guide to Pruning and Training Plants
David Joyce
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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| Flowers
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Trees
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ASIN: 0671738429 |
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A History of the Jews in North Africa Vol. 2, : From the Ottoman Conquests to the Present Time
H. Z. Hirschberg
Manufacturer: Brill Academic Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
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ASIN: 9004062955 |
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- Sanity and Grace
- a book as beautiful as her voice
- The truth is: You Never "Get Over It"
- A Journey of Suicide, Survival, and Strength
- Suicide, another elephant in the living room
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Sanity and Grace: A Journey of Suicide, Survival, and Strength
Judy Collins
Manufacturer: Tarcher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Morning, Noon, and Night: Living the Creative Life
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The Seven T's: Finding Hope and Healing in the Wake of Tragedy
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My Son...My Son: A Guide to Healing After Death, Loss, or Suicide
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No Time to Say Goodbye: Surviving The Suicide Of A Loved One
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Singing Lessons (w/CD)
ASIN: 1585422606
Release Date: 2003-09-25 |
Book Description
In this long-awaited sequel to the international bestseller The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron presents the next step in her course of discovering and recovering the creative self.
Walking in This World picks up where Julia Cameron's bestselling book on the creative process, The Artist's Way, left off to present readers with a second course-Part Two in an amazing journey toward discovering our human potential. Full of valuable new strategies and techniques for breaking through difficult creative ground, this is the "intermediate level" of the Artist's Way program.
A profoundly inspired work by the leading authority on the subject of creativity, Walking in This World is an invaluable tool for artists.
Customer Reviews:
Sanity and Grace.......2007-05-06
A moving account of how many lives are touched by a single moments mistake.
a book as beautiful as her voice.......2006-07-16
I purchased this book while in Boulder CO because Judy Collins, one of my favorite artists, was doing a talk and signing at the bookstore that night. Her book is an amazing memoir of life before and after her son completed suicide. She manages to put his life into context by sharing her background. I was mesmerized as I read, and I continue to be impressed by her strength and ability to put her life on display and speak out on so many issues that we as a society would prefer to ignore. The beauty of Judy Collins' singing voice is echoed in her written words. Reading her book is like having a private concert in your home.
The truth is: You Never "Get Over It".......2005-08-19
I didn't experience suicide of a loved one, but did experience the murder of my mother by a psychotic patient who came for treatment where she worked as a social worker, over 40 years ago when I was 9. There are many differences, but also commonalities in suicide, murder, and all sudden, violent death where there is no opportunity to say goodbye. And the major truth is this: you never "get over it." You can go on, and even laugh again and love again and experience great joy again, but part of your heart is permanently ripped out, and you feel it forever, and you never "get over it." The challenge, for survivors, is to try to create a loving, full life in spite of it. This is a key message of Ms. Collins' book.
A Journey of Suicide, Survival, and Strength.......2004-05-22
Sanity and Grace: A Journey of Suicide, Survival, and Strength
by Judy Collins
Reviewed by Suzanne M. Retzinger, Ph.D.
"The streets of London have their map; but our passions are uncharted." (Virginia Woolf).
I was given a copy of Sanity and Grace by a remarkable man - Al Lowman - and was not sure at the time what I was meant to see. I read it to find out. I found a rare combination of expression of feeling and intelligent use of the work that has been done on suicide - woven together into a story. What I saw in Judy Collins's book was a roadmap of the passions. I read the story of a journey from the stigma and shame of a family secret - her son's death by suicide - into the open where healing begins to take place.
Breaking down the ancient walls of a taboo, Judy chose to build bridges, rather than remain behind the wall. She questions why a person would be defined by a moment in time when someone takes his or her life - why this moment would weigh more than all others. A mix of journal entries and prose shows the road from pain to light - and there is light.
Like many who suffer from the death of a loved one, Judy was told to stop talking about it, "get on with your life", "you're bringing others down". I hear this again and again from people who come to the bereavement groups I facilitate. Silence prevents healing - suicide is whispered she says, and "never quite shouted, as it should be, to the rooftops." She refused to stay silent, or to accept shame that would have been isolating. Instead she chose to express her pain. Talking is healing, and grief is the acceptance of that loss.
Judy gives a clear message: there is only one way to heal - right through the pain. She found sobriety, and refused medication for her grief - grief is not a disease, "I wanted to feel everything, the pain and the depression, the hurt, even the rage." And she allowed herself to feel, "let it role over me and around me, let it boil up and claim me, let it wrench the tears out of my eyes and let it roll into rage." Her complex emotions find voice and grace through words.
Going through mourning can feel insane, and no one needs to do it alone. There's "power in the intimacy that comes with sharing secrets", and is in itself healing. A network of caring people and support groups helped her move through. There are support groups - there are caring people to travel with us. Hospice is a starting place to find such a group. By speaking her suffering, and courage to be vulnerable, Judy Collins charts a path for others to follow. A god has given us a voice to speak our pain - let us use it.
I sing my highest praise.
Suicide, another elephant in the living room.......2004-04-05
Just this week in Joyce, Washington, a 12-year old boy--popular and happy by all accounts--took a rifle into his classroom and shot himself in the chest in front of his teacher and 18 classmates. Last month, a 12-year old in Seattle tossed herself off a freeway overpass. Judy Collins is a singer, songwriter, author, and actress, with many years of recovery from alcoholism. Depression, the "dog on the leash" often attached to alcoholism and addiction, plagued her since childhood. Her first husband's father killed himself. Nobody talked about it. Years later, at 33, Ms. Collin's son, after a period of sobriety, relapsed and then killed himself, narrating his own death on audiotape. Suicide is like child abuse, cancer, domestic violence, addiction: the attitude of many is "it's time to move on. Get over it." What Ms. Collins knows and tells eloquently in this book, which also features an excellent reference list of other books on suicide,is that those left behind never get over it. She postulates, instead, that suicide must be talked about. The writing in the book is a combination of songs, poems, journal entries, interviews with other writers on suicide, and anecdotes about Ms. Collin's own life. The writing is sometimes uneven, with breathtaking imagery juxtaposed with cliche or platitude, though I of course enjoy platitudes that come from 12-Step programs because I know what life-savers they are--and this is how Ms. Collins uses them. I "grew up" to the sound of Judy Collins'songs; when she appeared nearby in a concert nearly a decade ago, she never mentioned that her tour was part of her own therapy for her terrible sense of loss and hopelessness from her son's suicide. This singing and her writing lend hope.
Amazon.com
Theater director Peter Sheridan's bracing memoir is timelessly Irish in its lyrical, word-drunk portrait of a boisterous family touched by tragedy: his younger brother, Frankie, died, aged 10, from a brain tumor. The book is also very much a document of the 1960s. It opens on New Year's Eve as 10-year-old Peter and his Da struggle to install a roof antenna: "Half an hour into 1960 we all sat staring at the television." The television goes on to play a major role in the Sheridans' perceptions of life beyond 44 Seville Place, Dublin, particularly when the Troubles explode across the border in Northern Ireland, their mother's birthplace. Rock & roll provides the soundtrack of Peter's youth, though theater becomes the lifeblood for him and older brother Shea (better known now as film director Jim Sheridan--My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father). Ending with the decade's last New Year's Eve, as he prepares to enter Trinity College, Sheridan closes a complex but seamless circle of metaphors and themes. His father finds the part necessary to fix their ancient TV, and when the family hears Da singing "Frankie and Johnny" in the bath for the first time since their Frankie's death, they know they have survived. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
It is New Year's Eve in Dublin, 1959. On the rooftop of 44 Seville Place, ten-year-old Peter Sheridan clings to the steel rod of a television antenna. When his father urges him to turn the antenna toward England, the boy reaches up, and pictures from a foreign place beam into their living room. Life in the Sheridan family will never be the same again.
As the 1960s unfold, the Sheridans experience all the decade has to offer: sex, the Beatles, drugs, and The Troubles in Belfast. One of the best-known figures in Irish contemporary theater, Peter Sheridan recounts these hilarious, awkward, and heartbreaking years with exquisite timing and dramatic precision. Honest, sharp-witted, and compassionate, 44: Dublin Made Me draws us into this loving family as we explore the Dublin that shaped this young boy.
"Seldom has the blossoming of artistic passion been so effectively captured . . . it will get into your brain and your blood and stay there a long time."--San Francisco Chronicle
"Peter Sheridan writes at the crossroads where hilarity and heartbreak, tenderness and savagery meet. The people who live there are often cruel, often magnificent, and always, always human. He captures them perfectly."--Roddy Doyle, author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and A Star Called Henry
"Sharp, jazzy, hilarious, and often painful . . . You'll rejoice in this wild song of a book."--Frank McCourt
44 was short-listed for The Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Nonfiction
Customer Reviews:
Dublin Made Me.......2007-09-03
Happiness is in the eye of the individual..to me this was a tragic family life...a mother overburdened with a houseful of children and a self centered husband. All the sader for me to review since I'd read 47 Roses first and knew the father to be less than honest with family.
Laugh and Cry.......2007-04-01
The story is about Peter growing up with his family in North Dublin and is set in the 1960's. The tightly knit family relations with his own family and those of his extended family of lodgers, which his parents took in to supplement his father's income, forms the backdrop to his story at 44 Seville Place.
The pace of the book has the rhythm of the sixties. The short sentences beat out the rhythm of the sixties and keeps the tempo up-beat throughout the whole of the book. For those who have experienced Dublin in the sixties this book will take you back to that place and that time.
The metaphorical pieces were very touching and masterfully executed. One example of this technique was when Peter tries to get to grips with his emotions concerning the possible loss of his brother Frankie before Frankie goes into surgery. A joy to read.
Da is the Sun and all the minor planets revolve around him. Peter takes to his role as Mercury the messenger with great relish. There is a strong bond between father and son.
I feel this story should not be compared to Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes. A one generation step into the future in Ireland can make a very big difference in how life is experienced.
It was a very enjoyable read whereby the need to laugh out loud in places could not be silenced. However there were places in the book where the need to cry out loud could also not be silenced.
Irish yarn unravels into beautiful story.......2004-06-16
As if drawn by a gravitational pull, Irish yarns seem to center on the relationship of children with their mothers. In a break from this natural order, Peter Sheridan's memoir, 44 Dublin Made Me turns to the bond of a boy with his father for its compelling tale.
Sheridan writes about his childhood with grace and ease. Readers are catapulted into his large Irish family in 1959 from the first sentence onward.
Peter Sheridan is a good Irish boy who enjoys school and loves the hectic life Dublin offers. His best friend, Andy, hates school but loves traipsing around the city in search of fortune.
The two boys influence each other in both good and bad ways - Andy gets involved with the church after a stint in reform school, and Peter learns to stand up for himself. In the end though, Andy remains the rogue and Peter the goody-two-shoes.
A steady presence throughout the book is Peter's Da. The man has his own outhouse in the garage, preaches to his family like they are his disciples and relies on his wins at the horse races as a major means of income.
Peter is his Da's helper and is ordered to do just about every imaginable task - from climbing up an ariel on the roof to fix the TV's reception to digging holes in the garage to fix water pressure.
When Peter's brother, Frankie, falls ill, their Da finds himself unable to cope. Peter tries to fill in for his father and be someone for his mother to rely on. After his father regains his strength, he and Peter find their friendship stronger.
Peter also runs errands all over the city and helps out with the tenants his parents have taken in.
One of these boarders, Mossie, plays a crucial role in Peter's life. Mossie robs Peter of his innocence, terrifies and scars him so deeply that Peter withdraws inwardly. Unable to find comfort, Peter then seeks solace at the hands of the church.
Illness and deaths make Peter grow up quickly and 44 Dublin Made Me documents his maturation. Andy gets a girl "in trouble" and quickly marries to take responsibility for the situation. As his world changes, Peter adapts.
Sheridan's strength is that he writes his story, which could be sad, as hopeful and happy. Rather than just have stories from his childhood strung together as some memoirs do, 44 Dublin Made Me creates a touching story.
A Rewarding Read.......2001-11-15
In the opening chapter of his memoirs, Peter Sheridan pedals off on his bike to run an errand for his father. Even at the age of 8, there's no way he could get lost in his own city. He "loves the statues and monuments. If Dublin were a woman, he'd marry her."
*** "44 Dublin Made Me" will invariably be compared to Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" on the sole count of being Irish. The Irish, however, are a diverse people, and life in Dublin is very different from life in Limmerick. McCourt's family faced scraping poverty, whereas Sheridan's family (by no means millionaires) have a steady home environment, food on the table, and the constant presence of both parents raising a large brood.
*** Peter Sheridan focuses on the decade of the 60s which begins with childhood innocence (getting a TV for the first time) and makes his way through adolescence and two defining events in the author's life -- a disturbing encounter on a train at age 13 and later the death of a family member.
*** Sheridan has a wonderful voice for storytelling. He stays true to his kid spirit and endears without being precious. And in fine Irish tradition, every laugh has a tragic edge and every sadness is survived by some beauty.
The Lines Are So Fine.......2001-02-02
When you read a McCourt memoir you read of bleak reality, a reality rarely tempered with happiness much less joy. There is humor, however of the sort that more often increases your respect for those who are able to find humor where few could even imagine it. At times the light moments are not so light, just bright in comparison to what you have read. At the other end there is Brendan O'Carroll and his trilogy of, "The Mammy", "The Chisellers", and "The Granny". This is fiction and it is outrageously funny, so much so that when there is a tragic event the pain you feel from laughing often tempers the darker moments. And then there is Peter Sheridan's work, "44 Dublin Made Me". And this work lies somewhere between the two others I have mentioned.
I enjoyed the book a great deal. At times it is almost a hybrid of the other three Authors I mention, for even though it is a memoir and does contain painful events, they are not as painfully presented as I think they need to be for readers. I am in no manner diminishing the pain of the Sheridan Family; I am expressing a writing issue, or perhaps a stylistic point.
There seem to be more of these Irish Memoirs as of late, and as they have been widely read, they by definition either create or reinforce notions people may have already brought to the book. The issue that I struggled with was the manner in which some material was presented, some was absolutely funny, and other issues were anything but humorous. I don't believe they ever can be humorous. And this is the part of the book that failed for me. The writing was a bit too neat and slick for want of a better word. The experiences of a young child read as an accomplished Author had written them rather than a talented writer bringing the thoughts of a young man across as a child may view them, but as an adult would read them.
The book is very good and it's one I would recommend. I felt it worth noting that the story of any country or the people that live there can become a commodity. I don't believe that to be the case with this book, but I feel the first steps on a slippery slope are waiting to be trod upon.
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Dublin Made Me
C. S. Andrews
Manufacturer: Lilliput Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1901866653 |
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Dublin made me: An autobiography
C. S Andrews
Manufacturer: Mercier Press
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Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: 0853426066 |
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