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Flyover lives : a memoir / Diane Johnson.

Van Pelt Library PS3560.O3746 Z46 2014
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LIBRA PS3560.O3746 Z46 2014
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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Johnson, Diane, 1934-
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Johnson, Diane, 1934---Family.
Johnson, Diane.
Johnson, Diane, 1934-.
Novelists, American--Biography.
Novelists, American.
Manners and customs.
Home.
Pioneers.
Families.
Moline (Ill.)--Biography.
Moline (Ill.).
Pioneers--Middle West--Biography.
Home--Middle West.
Middle West--Biography.
Middle West.
Middle West--Social life and customs.
Genre:
Biographies.
Autobiographies.
Physical Description:
xviii, 263 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Place of Publication:
New York : Viking, [2014]
Summary:
"From the New York Times bestselling author of Le Divorce, a dazzling meditation on the mysteries of the "wispy but material" family ghosts who shape us. Growing up in the small river town of Moline, Illinois, Diane Johnson always dreamed of floating down the Mississippi and off to see the world. Years later, at home in France, a French friend teases her: 'Indifference to history--that's why you Americans seem so naive and don't really know where you're from.' The j'accuse stayed with Johnson. Were Americans indifferent to history? Her own family seemed always to have been in the Midwest. Surely they had got there from somewhere? In digging around, she discovers letters and memoirs written by generations of stalwart pioneer ancestors that testify to more complex times than the derisive nickname 'The Flyover' gives the region credit for. With the acuity and sympathy that her novels are known for, she captures the magnetic pull of home against our lust for escape and self-invention. This spellbinding memoir will appeal to fans of Bill Bryson, Patricia Hampl, and Annie Dillard"-- Provided by publisher.
Contents:
I. In France
A Weekend with the General
II. Flyover Country
Moline, pop. 34,000
My Moline
Myopia
Pastimes
Economies
Books
III. Eighteenth-Century Beginnings
How We All Descend from Greatness
Ranna
Anne and God
Huts
1800
John Perkins Too Sees God
Some Stories from the Life of Catharine Perkins
The Story of Catharine Continued
The Inappropriate Letter
Catharine's Romance
The Affair of the Locket
Rascals
The Elusive Eleazer
Wedding Journey
Bloomingburg
Women's Work : Quilts
Eleazer the Doctor
Sorrow
Depression
Wars
IV. Modern Days
Watseka, Chenoa
Rich in Uncles
Summer
In God We Trusted...
The Dark Shadow
Flyover
Mademoiselle
California
Writer
Silver Screen
Uncle Bill
Divorce
London
Emancipation Proclamation
Defeat
Yellow Morgan
Chagrin
Epilogue.
ISBN:
9780670016402
0670016403
OCLC:
849719158

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