When she is seventeen, Emily Merritt’s beloved father gives her
the piano she has always wanted. A few days later, having lost his
job, he sells Emily’s piano and moves the family out of its
two-story house in Cleveland, Ohio, to his mother’s three-room
house in his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. The loss of her
piano casts a shadow over Emily’s life in Knoxville, a city she
could never love. Throughout the rest of her life, Emily longs to
return to Cleveland, where she had an idyllic youth with many
boyfriends and girlfriends and was, above all, a good piano
student. Her life becomes like that of a nomad, moving from house
to house and from job to job. Her great love of life is expressed
by dancing in highway honky-tonks, along with her six beautiful
girlfriends. After divorcing her lovable, alcoholic husband, Emily
falls deeply in love with troubled married men. She doesn’t enjoy
whiskey or smoking, but she’s not a churchgoer. She raises three
boys in poverty. A fourth son dies soon after birth. Oldest Dickie
becomes a life-long petty conman, but little brother John, known as
“Sunshine,” becomes a legendary rescuer of wayward boys and
girls. Jerry, the middle brother, becomes a merchant seaman, a
soldier, and finally a professor and successful writer. Rather than
a chronological narrative, Madden employs an impressionistic style
that enables readers to experience Emily’s memories as he
imagines them. In sharply focused scenes, Madden evokes the
colorful expressions of the articulate, witty woman he has spent
all his life listening to—and this memoir will inspire readers to
listen eagerly, too.
General
Imprint: |
University of Tennessee Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
July 2023 |
Authors: |
David Madden
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152mm (L x W) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade
|
Pages: |
232 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-62190-782-4 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-62190-782-1 |
Barcode: |
9781621907824 |
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