A family of strangers / Deborah Tall.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tall, Deborah, 1951-2006.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

310 pages ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Louisville, Ky. : Sarabande Books, [2006]

Summary:

"Without self-absorption, Tall traces the self's emergence in a place which she recognized from the start as her testing place."--Seamus Heaney "In the literature of place, Deborah Tall's book stands out for its delicacy, range of learning, and refreshing frankness."--Phillip Lopate In her third book of nonfiction, Deborah Tall explores the genealogy of the missing. Haunted by her orphaned father's abandonment by his extended family, his secretive, walled-off trauma and absent history, she sets off in pursuit of the family he claims not to have. From the dutiful happiness of Levittown in the 1950s to a stricken former shtetl in Ukraine, we follow Tall's journey through evasions and lies. Reflecting on family secrecy, postwar American culture, and the urge for roots, Tall's search uncovers not just a missing family but an understanding of the part family and history play in identity. A Family of Strangers is Tall's life's work, told in such exacting, elegant language that the suppressed past vividly asserts its place in the present.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 300-309).

ISBN:

1932511458

9781932511451

193251144X

9781932511444

OCLC:

63744480

Publisher Number:

9781932511444

9781932511451