One of the joys of having an adult child is when he and I can share books. Adam was assigned this book in a class at UGA on Southern autobiographies. Rick Bragg is my age and grew up not far from here across the border to Alabama. He grew up "poor white trash", with a mean and alcoholic father, but the strength of his mother and extended family, as well as a great writing talent, got him out of the cycle of poverty and eventually as a writer for the NY Times and a Pulitzer Prize winner. His descrptions of life in small town South rang true for many of the people around here. This was a hard book to read at times, but he is a great writer and I feel honestly and lovingly wrote of the struggles of growing up poor and dealing with the demons of his childhood.
Non-fiction
This book portrays the "redneck" South that is generally left out of literature. Rick portrays the southern stereotypes respectfully and shows his path out of a life of either hard work or drifting. In a household held together by his mother and torn again and again by his father Rick's life takes the unlikely form of a Pulitzer Prize winner. I would recommend this to anyone who lives or grew up in a small town above the fall line.
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