Driving with Dvorak: Essays on Memory and Identity (American Lives)
Contents:
Driving with Dvorak: Essays on Memory and Identity
To ask other readers questions about Driving with Dvorak , please sign up. Lists with This Book. Mar 07, Tabitha Blankenbiller rated it liked it. For the majority of Driving with Dvorak, a collection of memoir essays by Fleda Brown, the style is clear with a smart and snappy wit. I related closely to her dark-humored, self-depreciating style. Brown is a self-described lyric essay-writer, and her varying stories gave good examples of her take on the form.
There were the braided essays: She reminds us where she is, and foreshadows its significance to the greater whole. And yet, reading the tender moments with Ray and seeing his loveable features with his flaws, we almost root for an alternate ending. She has to remind us where her heart is, pulling us back from falling in love. Giving us this trail of fate helps us follow her back and forth in their relationship easier—knowing the ending, but enjoying the ride.
- .
- Surrender, The Way Out.
- Driving with Dvorak: Essays on Memory and Identity by Fleda Brown?
- ?
- Almost There!
- The Stolen Sash: An Archibald Mercer Mystery;
The placement is notable for two reasons: I love this creative approach to breaching a difficult subject—breaking it down into pieces and anecdotes, and tying them together in an almost scientific way. There were only two essays I feel fell seriously short: If anything, it slowed the pace and bogged down what would otherwise be an interesting look at her marriages and transitions. I am a little biased when it comes to cats, and I apologize if this inhibits my subjectivity.
The arrangement of the book was particularly interesting to me. It seemed that with every essay, she evoked a question within us. The next would hint at the answer, or at least give us a story to draw our own conclusions from, while leading into the next question and echoed answer.
Driving with Dvorak : Essays on Memory and Identity
The first piece describes her trying to change her last name. What would drive this girl into such desperation to get away from her home and family? How did this past and obligation affect other members of her family? And so on, stringing and engaging us along through the end, where we find out that Brown is ironically almost deaf. She sifts through the one she knows, gives us these pieces. Her serenity with her world leaves us feeling at peace, that this was a life she can finally understand in the silence.
Feb 22, Nina rated it it was amazing. It rises and falls as she describes, through a series of essays, a lifelong attempt to connect with her father.
The cabin in Michigan which is a feature of much of her poetry is also a mainstay in the essays. Brown writes with a gentle yet determined grace that makes even the most difficult topic of these essays a joy to read. Her poetry is rich with perfect word choices, and so is her prose. Feb 28, Karen rated it liked it Shelves: When I picked up this book at the library I thought it would be a book of poems and related to the Dvorak keyboard.
Turns out it's a memoir-like book of essays related to the composer. Sep 15, Devon rated it it was amazing.
Driving with Dvorak: Essays on Memory and Identity (American Lives) [Fleda Brown] on bahana-line.com *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. All our lives are. All our lives are made of moments, both simple and sublime, all of which in some way partake of the cultural moment. Fleda Brown is that rare writer who.
Vehemently smart and ultimately forgiving essays about surviving a damaging family and still loving the world. Tom Conlan rated it really liked it Jun 26, Pam Diamond rated it it was amazing Aug 04, JoAnn rated it it was amazing Dec 09, Erin Hollowell rated it it was amazing Jun 16, Tim rated it really liked it Jul 16, Carl rated it liked it Jan 03, Adriana Zubiri rated it liked it May 31, Cheryl rated it liked it Jan 05, Dawn rated it liked it Sep 20, By using our website you agree to our use of cookies.
Dispatched from the UK in 3 business days When will my order arrive?
Bestselling Series
Sterling Professor of the Humanities Harold Bloom. Home Contact Us Help Free delivery worldwide. Essays on Memory and Identity. Description All our lives are made of moments, both simple and sublime, all of which in some way partake of the cultural moment. Fleda Brown is that rare writer who, in narrating the incidents and observations of her life, turns her story, by wit and insight and a poet's gift, into something more.
This is an unconventional memoir. A series of lyrical essays about life in a maddeningly complex family during the even more maddeningly complex fifties and sixties, it adds up to one woman's story while simultaneously reflecting the story of her times. A strange and erratic father, a resigned and helpless mother, a mentally disabled brother, a sister with a brain tumor: Whether reflecting on the automobile industry or a wrenching parting from beloved pets or the process of aging, Brown's telling rings with great humor, profound perception, and a lyricism that makes even the most commonplace moment uncommonly good reading.
Product details Format Hardback pages Dimensions People who bought this also bought.
Bestsellers in Literary Essays. The Myth of Sisyphus Albert Camus. The Prince Niccolo Machiavelli.
Politics and the English Language George Orwell. Essays and Aphorisms Arthur Schopenhauer. Why I Write George Orwell. Notes to Self Emilie Pine. Yes Please Amy Poehler. The Examined Life Stephen Grosz. Figures in a Landscape Paul Theroux. The Rebel Albert Camus. Sister Outsider Professor Audre Lorde. Fifty Letters of Pliny Pliny the Younger. Walden Henry David Thoreau. In Praise of Shadows Jun'ichiro Tanizaki. Reasons to Stay Alive Matt Haig. The Cost of Living Deborah Levy.
Opa Nobody Sonya Huber. JoAnn rated it it was amazing Dec 09, Brown is a self-described lyric essay-writer, and her varying stories gave good examples of her take on the form. Dylan marked it as to-read Dec 06, How did this past and obligation affect other members of her family? Turns out it's a memoir-like book of essays related to the composer. Between Panic and Desire Dinty W.