First published 1999
Bobbie Ann Mason opens her family story on the Kentucky farm where the Masons of Clear Springs built their lives around work, food, and land. As a girl who felt like a misfit, Mason dreamed of places beyond the farm while her parents and grandparents maintained their country culture rooted in common sense and music. Her journey takes her from traveling the South as president of the Hilltoppers Fan Club to the counterculture of 1960s New York, from a mental institution's shock therapy ward to a Hollywood movie set. When filmmakers adapt her novel In Country near her hometown, limousines arrive in Clear Springs for the first time. The production brings Mason face to face with her parents' wisdom and values. Her mother emerges as the central figure whose life reveals unexpected drama and meaning. Mason's travels through decades and different worlds lead her back to understanding what heritage and family roots truly mean.
Genres: family, family-life, american-fiction, 20th-century, american, biography-memoir, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Clear Springs, Kentucky, New York
Period: 1960s
296 pages · Hardcover · Random House