Pluck : a memoir of a Newfoundland childhood and the raucous, terrible, amazing journey to becoming a novelist / Donna Morrissey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Morrissey, Donna, 1956- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Morrissey, Donna, 1956-.

Morrissey, Donna.

Novelists, Canadian--Biography.

Novelists, Canadian.

Anxiety disorders--Patients--Canada--Biography.

Anxiety disorders.

Brothers--Death--Psychological aspects.

Brothers.

Patients.

Canada.

Genre:

Autobiographies.

Biographies.

Physical Description:

305 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Other Title:

Memoir of a Newfoundland childhood and the raucous, terrible, amazing journey to becoming a novelist

Place of Publication:

[Toronto, Ontario] : Viking, 2021.

Summary:

"A deeply personal account of love's restorative ability as it leads renowned novelist Donna Morrissey through mental illness, family death, and despair to becoming a writer--told with charm and inimitable humour. When Donna Morrissey left the only home she had ever known, an isolated Newfoundland settlement, at age 16, she was ready for adventure. She had grown up without television or telephones but had absorbed the tragic stories and comic yarns of her close-knit family and community. The death of her infant brother marked the family, and years later, Morrissey suffers devastating guilt about the accidental death of her teenage brother, whom she'd enticed to join her in the oilfields. Her misery was compounded by her own misdiagnosis of a terminal illness, all of which contributed to crippling anxiety and an actual diagnosis of PTSD. Many of those events and themes would eventually be transformed and recast as fictional gold in Morrissey's novels. In another writer's hands, Morrissey's account of her personal story could easily be a tragedy. Instead, she combines darkness and light, levity and sadness into her tale, as her indomitable spirit and humour sustain her. Morrissey's path takes her from the drudgery of being a grocery clerk (who occasionally enlivens her shift with recreational drugs) to western oilfields, to marriage and divorce and working in a fish-processing plant to support herself and her two young children. Throughout her struggles, she nourishes a love of learning and language. Morrissey layers her account of her life with stories of those who came before her, a breed rarely seen in the modern world. It centers around iron-willed women: mothers and daughters, wives, sisters, teachers and mentors who find the support, the wind for their wings, outside the bounds given to them by nature. And it is a mysterious older woman she meets in Halifax who eventually unleashes the writer that Morrissey is destined to become. An inspiring and insightful memoir, Pluck illustrates that even when you find yourself unravelling, you can find a way to spin the yarns that will save you--and delight readers everywhere."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: IMAGINATION

Fear

Broken Moments

Away

Fledglings and Feathers

Desire, Rage, and Rock `n' Roll

Bay Girl Meets Cool Girl

Demystifying Away

FORTITUDE

Bankruptcy and Busted Wipers

Betrayal, Ignorance, and Payback

Before and After

Three White Lice

Walking Through Water

PLUCK

The Suffering of the Suffering

Darkness

A Game of Cards

All Is Grace

METAMORPHOSIS

Skeleton Women

The Writing Life

A Story Is Seeded

Different Dirt

A Moment of Humility

Charades

Rocking Her Babies.

Other Format:

Online version: Morrissey, Donna, 1956- Pluck.

ISBN:

9780735239197

0735239193

OCLC:

1226780036

Publisher Number:

99989396062