Becky Bradway - Pink Houses and Family Taverns DOC, EPUB
9780253340887 English 0253340888 "... Becky Bradway writes compellingly about the place where she was raised and still lives, but she also knows that the hidden component of place is time and its ceaseless motion and the motion it spawns in all of us. On these many stable planes, we are always passing through." -- from the Foreword by Michael Martone Much of what inspires Pink Houses and Family Taverns, a collection of creative nonfiction by Becky Bradway, is the author's upbringing in rural southern Illinois. Coming of age among a family of carpenters, housewives, and factory workers, Bradway works to get an education and to build a different kind of life for herself (in spite of social pressures to "keep her in her place"). Her dreams of becoming a writer and a professor often run head-on with the hometown's expectations that she keep her mouth shut like a "proper girl," and with the university's expectations that she toe a more formal, conservative line. The tension Bradway feels about "Being From There" permeates her memoir, as she negotiates the transitions between childhood and adulthood, rural life and urban life, ignorance and sophistication. She debates important life decisions and presents us with a vivid array of characters -- family, friends, students -- who have made an impression on her. Bradway writes in a conversational style that is often humorous and occasionally sardonic; and she approaches her subjects with sincerity, open-mindedness, and compassion. The essays are complemented by a selection of black-and-white photographs of the region and its inhabitants., These creative essays by Illinois native Becky Bradway are both personal and narrative: They are memoir, as the author debates important life decisions and reveals details about her upbringing in a poor rural Illinois community, presenting us with a vivid array of characters--family and friends--who made an impression on her; and they are commentary on place, as contemporary events lead the author to engage the topics of race relations, class consciousness, social status, music/culture/landscape, and creative impulses. The essays are complemented by a selection of black-and-white photographs by Midwestern artists who share the author's vision of place.Pink Houses and Family Taverns is a collection of creative non-fiction essays by Becky Bradway, who grew up in rural Illinois and later came back to her home state to settle. The essays are both personal and narrative: They are memoir, as the author debates important life decisions and reveals details about her upbringing among poor country folk in rural Illinois, presenting us with a vivid array of characters--family and friends--who made an impression on her; and they are commentary on place, as contemporary events lead the author to engage the topics of race relations, class consciousness, social status, music/culture/landscape, and creative impulses. Bradway writes in a style that is as unpretentious as it is ingratiating, oftentimes humorous and occasionally sardonic, and she approaches her subjects with sincerity, open-mindedness, and compassion. The essays are complemented by a selection of black-and-white photographs by Midwestern artists who share the author's vision of place.
9780253340887 English 0253340888 "... Becky Bradway writes compellingly about the place where she was raised and still lives, but she also knows that the hidden component of place is time and its ceaseless motion and the motion it spawns in all of us. On these many stable planes, we are always passing through." -- from the Foreword by Michael Martone Much of what inspires Pink Houses and Family Taverns, a collection of creative nonfiction by Becky Bradway, is the author's upbringing in rural southern Illinois. Coming of age among a family of carpenters, housewives, and factory workers, Bradway works to get an education and to build a different kind of life for herself (in spite of social pressures to "keep her in her place"). Her dreams of becoming a writer and a professor often run head-on with the hometown's expectations that she keep her mouth shut like a "proper girl," and with the university's expectations that she toe a more formal, conservative line. The tension Bradway feels about "Being From There" permeates her memoir, as she negotiates the transitions between childhood and adulthood, rural life and urban life, ignorance and sophistication. She debates important life decisions and presents us with a vivid array of characters -- family, friends, students -- who have made an impression on her. Bradway writes in a conversational style that is often humorous and occasionally sardonic; and she approaches her subjects with sincerity, open-mindedness, and compassion. The essays are complemented by a selection of black-and-white photographs of the region and its inhabitants., These creative essays by Illinois native Becky Bradway are both personal and narrative: They are memoir, as the author debates important life decisions and reveals details about her upbringing in a poor rural Illinois community, presenting us with a vivid array of characters--family and friends--who made an impression on her; and they are commentary on place, as contemporary events lead the author to engage the topics of race relations, class consciousness, social status, music/culture/landscape, and creative impulses. The essays are complemented by a selection of black-and-white photographs by Midwestern artists who share the author's vision of place.Pink Houses and Family Taverns is a collection of creative non-fiction essays by Becky Bradway, who grew up in rural Illinois and later came back to her home state to settle. The essays are both personal and narrative: They are memoir, as the author debates important life decisions and reveals details about her upbringing among poor country folk in rural Illinois, presenting us with a vivid array of characters--family and friends--who made an impression on her; and they are commentary on place, as contemporary events lead the author to engage the topics of race relations, class consciousness, social status, music/culture/landscape, and creative impulses. Bradway writes in a style that is as unpretentious as it is ingratiating, oftentimes humorous and occasionally sardonic, and she approaches her subjects with sincerity, open-mindedness, and compassion. The essays are complemented by a selection of black-and-white photographs by Midwestern artists who share the author's vision of place.