Between Them
Remembering My Parents
On Sale: 05/02/2017
Between Them
Remembering My Parents
On Sale: 05/02/2017
Format:
About the Book
From American master Richard Ford, a memoir: his first work of nonfiction, a stirring narrative of memory and parental love
How is it that we come to consider our parents as people with rich and intense lives that include but also exclude us? Richard Ford’s parents—Edna, a feisty, pretty Catholic-school girl with a difficult past; and Parker, a sweet-natured, soft-spoken traveling salesman—were rural Arkansans born at the turn of the twentieth century. Married in 1928, they lived “alone together” on the road, traveling throughout the South. Eventually they had one child, born late, in 1944.
For Ford, the questions of what his parents dreamed of, how they loved each other and loved him become a striking portrait of American life in the mid-century. Between Them is his vivid image of where his life began and where his parents’ lives found their greatest satisfaction.
Bringing his celebrated candor, wit, and intelligence to this most intimate and mysterious of landscapes—our parents’ lives—the award-winning storyteller and creator of the iconic Frank Bascombe delivers an unforgettable exploration of memory, intimacy, and love.
Critical Praise
“[A] novel about big truths told by a writer with clear vision…solid, satisfying craftsmanship. This is a Richard Ford novel in the tradition of his earlier work. It also is a coming-of-age story, and a story about the discovery of identity.” — Washington Independent Review of Books
“[A] deeply felt and magnificently imagined work…With Canada, Ford has given us his deepest exploration yet of weakness and betrayal set amid a boy’s coming of age. It is a memorable novel, suffused with love, sorrow and regret.” — Austin American-Statesman
“…you don’t read the Bascombe books for plot. You read them for Ford’s gleaming sentences, which in Let Me Be Frank are as burnished as ever, and for the quality of Frank’s questing intelligence, which persists in sensing what’s coming.” — USA Today
“[Subtle] stories told with wit and grace… Ford has established himself as one of contemporary America’s most interesting storytellers. Let Me be Frank with You does nothing to diminish this well-deserved reputation.” — New York Journal of Books
“[Canada]confirms his position as one of the finest stylists and most humane storytellers in America… his most elegiac and profound book…” — Washington Post
“Elegant prose . . . unassuming but sweetly profound phraseology. . . . The most moving thing he’s written.” — The Globe and Mail
“While we’ve seen versions of Ford’s parents in his stories and novels, to have them here in their own right is thrilling, heartbreaking and ultimately enlivening.” — Toronto Star
-Resources
Product Details
- ISBN: 9781443453356
- ISBN 10: 1443453358
- Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers
- On Sale: 05/02/2017
- Pages: 192
- List Price:27.99 CAD
- BISAC1 : BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs
