Friday from the Archives: “Family Reunions of Words” a review of recent collections of creative nonfiction by Tony Earley and Rebecca McClanahan by Maryscot Mullins in NCLR 2004
We are excited to host Rebecca McClanahan on Monday for a free reading from her new memoir, “Light Falls on Everything,” at 5 p.m., in the Faulkner Gallery at Joyner Library. The memoir explores experiences familiar to many families who navigate the challenges of caring for aging parents and confronting loss.
Let’s revisit her first memoir and our review of it, published in our 2004 issue. Reviewer Mullins wrote, “McClanahan views The Riddle Song and Other Rememberings as one of her gifts to future generations of her family, calling her book a “family reunion of words” (1), which is an apt description.”
Memoirs often explore multi-generational family stories; McClanahan revisits in her newest a theme of loss also found in her first memoir. Mullins explains that “After her great-aunt’s death, McClanahan reads Aunt Bessie’s diaries and discovers that she was once a writer and a passionate woman, not the old maid McClanahan believed her to be many years before: “She wishes for the words to come more easily. She longs for the power to express the sting of a sleigh ride, the red burn of sunset, the taste of oyster soup and apples …. As I read the diary, it begins to make sense – my hunger for words, my very choice of vocation. I want to thank her but she is not here” (9). In fact, The Riddle Song and Other Rememberings is dedicated to Aunt Bessie’s memory.”
Join us for a reading and conversation with McClanahan in order to learn more about the memoir process.
Read the entire review on Gale Literature. Add the 2004 issue to your collection today!
