by Rick Bragg
First published 1997
Rick Bragg opens his memoir in the dirt-poor hills of Alabama, where his mother fought to shield her sons from the poverty and ignorance that had trapped her own life. His father, scarred by war and lost to drink, cast a shadow over their struggle. Bragg's mother became the family's anchor, her encouragement and fierce belief in her son's potential driving him forward. The author traces how he carved out a different life through writing, eventually winning a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 1996. Yet success brings its own burden as Bragg grapples with his past. He seeks both to make amends for old wounds and to settle scores with the cruelties he witnessed. The memoir captures people trying to build something solid from life's uncertain promises, told through Bragg's searching perspective and rich storytelling voice that balances generous humor with unflinching honesty about his family's reality.
Genres: literary-fiction, family-life, 20th-century, american, autobiography, memoir, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Alabama
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
329 pages · Hardcover · Pantheon
Content warnings: abuse, alcohol-abuse