 | Apple, Tree: Writers on Their Parents Subjects: Authors American -- Family relationships; Parent and child -- United States; Parenting -- Psychological aspects -- United States; Identity (Psychology) -- United States; Self; Authors American -- Biography; The old adage, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree," encouraged Funderburg, a University of Pennsylvania lecturer, to explore its truth in this sparkling anthology of essays on the contributors' parents. Its selections all echo John Freeman's declaration, "Love is in clarity, not sentiment." Freeman, like Kyoko Mori and Avi Steinberg, find benefit in troublesome family legacies. Marc Mewshaw and Jane Hamilton look back on a parent's writing career, and Bear Bergman credits his father's knack for oral, rather than written, storytelling with shaping his own narrative abilities. Lauren Grodstein and Karen Grigsby Bates pay tribute to their mothers' cooking, and Susan Ito and Dana Prescott do the same to the adventurous, extroverted lives of their fathers (both traveling salesmen.) Lolis Eric Elie reflects on the uncommon first name he shares with his father and son, and Ann Patchett muses on the close likeness she bears to her mother. These essays particularly excel with serving up memorable last lines, as in Patchett's piece, in which the nurse overseeing her mother's hospital care comments on how similar they look--"Like sisters?" Patchett asks, to which the nurse replies, "No, like the same person." These essays, in addition to being resonant in their own right, will also move readers to recollect stories of their own parents. Agent: Geri Thoma, Writers House. (Sept.) Lise Funderburg is a writer and editor and a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania. Funderburg's collection of oral histories, Black, White, Other: Biracial Americans Talk about Race and Identity , has become a core text in the study of American multiracial identity in college courses around the world. Her latest book is Pig Candy: Taking My Father South, Taking My Father Home . Her work has appeared in the New York Times , the Washington Post , the Philadelphia Inquirer , National Geographic , Salon and the Nation . Complete list of contributors: Karen Grigsby Bates, S. Bear Bergman, Kate Carroll de Gutes, Leland Cheuk, Lolis Eric Elie, Carolyn Ferrell, John Freeman, Lauren Grodstein, Jane Hamilton, Susan Ito, Mat Johnson, Donna Masini, Daniel Mendelsohn, Marc Mewshaw, Laura Miller, Kyoko Mori, Ann Patchett, Dana Prescott, Lizzie Skurnick, Avi Steinberg, Angelique Stevens, Clifford Thompson, Shukree Hassan Tilghman, Sallie Tisdale, and Laura van den Berg. |
