Giving wings to the past, and a voice to those silenced

-

In her book Memorial Drive, A Daughter’s Memoir (7/28/20), Pulitzer Prize winning (poetry), two term Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey describes events in her life that occurred up to the age of 19, giving wings to the past. The wounds and injustices are carried inside for years, ghosts resurrected in haunting dreams, a wound that never heals. This book is a coming to terms with childhood demons, demonstrating how a single act of brutality in a family can overlie a thousand smaller deaths suffered by the vulnerable, held hostage for years by a tyrant who rules behind the facade of neatly closed doors. A chance encounter in a Decatur bar becomes a key to unlocking details, providing structure and context to her memories, and an opportunity for healing.

The pattern of domestic violence is unconscionably further enabled by those confided in, who signal disengagement with, “sometimes adults get angry with each other.” The narrative is so well expressed, but the chapter of phone transcripts gave such immediacy and authority to the story, it will stay with me forever. This powerful book makes domestic violence resonate in a way only witnessing a testament can evoke. It is a courageous act to invest the time, energy, and discipline required to bring such a punishing personal story to life, giving voice to those rendered silent, and honoring her family’s experience, as well as for many others in similar circumstances. 

Her biological father, Eric Trethewey, taught English at Hollins College (Virginia) from 1984 until his death at the age of 71 in 2014, and occasionally they did poetry readings together. I listened to a library digital audiobook which the author narrates, making the experience all the more personal. There is also a wonderful YouTube interview with the author posted by Southern Festival of books 10/10/20.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spend a Year Walkng in Stanley Tucci’s Shoes

-
What I Ate In One Year by Stanley Tucci is an interesting, light, humorous, and witty read for anyone interested in cooking, good food, restaurants, acting and actors, what Tucci’s daily business and family life is like, and what the heck is going on with his wife Felicity Blunt who Tucci portrays constantly throughout the book as potentially engaging in affairs, which I’m sure is just a humorous device of some kind. You couldn’t help noticing everytime he mentions where she’s off to, there is a tongue in cheek sarcastic suggestion that other men may be involved, throughout the entire book, yet they pair beautifully in the kitchen, and he makes the point, “Time cooking with someone you love is time well spent.” Before this book I was reading Richard Osman’s latest, We Solve Murders, and struggling to get through which I didn’t expect as I’ve loved previous books he’d written. I found it very different from his books in the Thursday Murder Club series. Tucci’s book by comparison was a v...
Read more

The Wager is a Safe Bet As A Gripping Book About Life, Death, and Adventure on an 18th Century British Warship

-
The Wager by David Grann is the poster book for “Truth is stranger than fiction;” this  narrative nonfiction book is a story about a crew of men and boys with ages spanning from 80 years (a cook) to adolescence, who work on the British 18th century ship HMS Wager in 1741. They are sent on a secret Naval mission with a squadron of other ships to destroy any Spanish vessels along the way toward South America and the Pacific Ocean (they were at war with Spain), and also try to locate and commandeer a legendary Spanish treasure ship. Author David Grann had access to “archival debris: the washed-out logbooks, the moldering correspondence, the half-truthful journals, and the surviving records from the troubling court-martial”(Kindle book blurb). This book is like a runaway train I didn’t want to leave. It is gripping and not easily put down.  I posted several passages from this book on social media, prompting a friend to ask if it was similar to William Golding’s book Lord of the Fl...
Read more

A Plot to Capture the American Zeitgeist

-
Image
Amazon’s book blurb for The Everglades by Louis Berry says this about it, “…a chilling saga unfolds where the pristine wilderness of Florida’s Everglades masks a sinister legacy of evil. In 1945, two Nazi war criminals, General Reinhard Hochstuhl and Colonel Wilhelm Von Unterscheisse , infiltrate 1945 Miami via a covert U-boat landing, seeding a multi-generational plot to subvert American society.” Berry writes, “No one in Miami was aware of the German U-Boat five hundred yards offshore; south of Flamingo Point . The ship operated within rat-lines moving high-valued Nazis to safety across the globe…Orders were to assimilate. Approach was to erode each generation’s connection to God. Free of dogmatic German machinery, lies became subtle; directed at influencing beliefs Americans held dear. Eliminating God from the collective consciousness was best accomplished across generations. The men knew they must find wives sympathetic to the Fatherland’s cause of world dom...
Read more