Overview

PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST From acclaimed author Bobbie Ann Mason, her Pulitzer Prize-nominated memoir chronicling three generations of her Kentucky lineage, spanning a century in the life of an American family. Mason gets to the heart of a whole generation.... She can write the hard truth about home, love, loss.... Immensely satisfying. --New York Times Book Review People love and remember the novels of Bobbie Ann Mason because they ring so true. This dazzling memoir has the same power. In it, Mason tells the story of her own family--a multilayered saga of three generations, their aspirations, their conflicts, and the ties that bound them to one another. Spanning decades, Clear Springs gracefully weaves together the stories of Mason's grandparents, parents, and her own generation. The narrative moves from the sober industriousness of a Kentucky farm to the hippie lifestyle of the countercultural 1960s; from a New York fan magazine to the shock-therapy ward of a mental institution; from a county poorhouse to the set of a Hollywood movie. In the process of recounting her own odyssey--the story of an isolated girl who dreamed of distant places--Mason depicts the changes that have come to family, to women, and to heartland America in the twentieth century. Ultimately, Clear Springs is a heartfelt portrait of an extended family, and a profound affirmation of the importance of family love.

Full Product Details

9781799940241

Table of Contents

Reviews

Plain-spoken, thoughtful, sometimes humorous, but never cloying, Mason's recollections of growing up in the country, striking out for the wider world in the 1960s, and then spiraling back toward her roots, are sure to resonate with a wide audience. -- Los Angeles Times Fiction writer Bobbie Ann Mason's memoir tells the powerful story of the true country people of Clear Spring, Ky...The book is a model of memoir and family history as Mason moves easily from her childhood back to he rparents' early lives, and beyond. -- Chicago Tribune Among the many strengths of Mason's memoir is its careful subtlety. Master writer that she is, Mason doesn't overplay her transformation, and that's why we feels its effects so strongly. -- San Francisco Examiner

Author Information

Bobbie Ann Mason is the author of The Girl in the Blue Beret, In Country, Shiloh and Other Stories, An Atomic Romance, Nancy Culpepper, and a memoir, Clear Springs. She is the winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award, two Southern Book Awards, and numerous other prizes, including the O. Henry and the Pushcart. She was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the American Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. She is former writer-in-residence at the University of Kentucky. Bringing the experience of nearly four decades of theater, film, and television acting to audiobook narration, AudioFile Earphones Award winner Janet Metzger has deftly interpreted the many-faceted characters of Southern fiction writers such as Sarah Addison Allen, Patti Callahan Henry, and Kristy Woodson Harvey. As an award-winning documentary narrator and a master teacher at Emory University School of Law, where she teaches storytelling and persuasion, Janet brings both warmth and authority to nonfiction as well. Whether she is narrating a Southern romance, a heroine's journey, or an innovative take on business, Janet's warm and inviting voice will draw you into the story. Jean Strouse won the Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy for her biography Alice James. She lives in New York City.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available