Light while there is light : an American history / Keith Waldrop ; introduction by Ben Lerner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Waldrop, Keith, Author.

Contributor:

Lerner, Ben, 1979- writer of introduction.

Series:

New York Review Books classics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Waldrop, Keith--Childhood and youth--Fiction.

Waldrop, Keith.

Poets, American--20th century--Fiction.

Poets, American.

Mothers and sons--Fiction.

Mothers and sons.

Fundamentalism--United States--Fiction.

Fundamentalism.

Genre:

Autobiographical fiction.

Physical Description:

xiv, 201 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : The New York Review of Books, 2026.

Summary:

"A moving, poetic memoir about a family on the fringes of religion and society, this unforgettable story about a mother's destructive search daliance with Christian fundamentalism pulls the curtain back on the darker side of American religious experience. This brilliant fictional memoir of an American family begins with ghosts: the moans of the author's mother. And indeed, Waldrop's ghostly portrait of his mother and other family members is, in part, a kind of American haunting, a haunting of the mind, of dreams, of aspirations, and, most of all, of the spirit. Born into a deeply religious family, the author and his siblings are taken by their mother across the Midwest and South as she searches for the "right" religious sect and educates them in various forms of fundamentalism, a trip that ends with the mother speaking in tongues and eventually in her total isolation. It is not only his mother, however, but the author's brothers who are utterly transformed by her spiritual thirst. Unable to cope properly with a world of little moral values, the brothers themselves become involved in shady business operations and sham religious institutions"-- Provided by publisher.

Other Format:

Online version Waldrop, Keith, 1932- Light while there is light

ISBN:

9798896230366

OCLC:

1531488360