Bad Blood: A Memoir - Hardcover

Sage, Lorna

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0066214432 ISBN 13: 9780066214436

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 2002

Synopsis

The late author and renowned literary critic describes her life in post-World War II Britain in a compelling memoir of family life, marriage, and personal history. Winner of the 2000 Whitbread Biography Award.

About this title

Review:

"Magnificent. . . . A superb memoir of a daughter of the 1950s who got knocked up, but not knocked down."--Maureen Corrigan, National Public Radio's Fresh Air

"Deserves to become a classic."--The Independent (London)

"Deserves special notice... The intensely personal story will resonate with more than just Anglophiles."--Booklist

"Shockingly frank, but also witty, passionate, and utterly lacking self-pity -- and surprisingly uplifting."--Kirkus Reviews

"An award-winning memoir of courageous escape."--Harper's Bazaar

"Deeply affecting and beautifully written."--People

"In Bad Blood, [Sage] has written a classic."--New York Review of Books

"Extraordinary... Should stand out for its combination of powerful writing, wicked black humor and social history."--Publishers Weekly Daily

In Bad Blood, [Sage] has written a classic. --New York Review of Books"

Magnificent. . . . A superb memoir of a daughter of the 1950s who got knocked up, but not knocked down. --Maureen Corrigan, National Public Radio's Fresh Air"

From the Back Cover:

Lorna Sage's adventure in autobiography is a searing and funny anatomy of three marriages that brings to life her girlhood in postwar provincial Britain. Her early childhood was dominated by her brilliant, bitter grandfather, a drinker, a womanizer, a vicar, exiled to a remote village on the Welsh borders. His wife loathed him, lived on memories, and shook her fist at any parishioner bold enough to call at the house. From the vicarage Lorna watched the fading away of the old world and the slow dissolve of her grandparents' disastrous Union.

Then her father returns from the army and she moves with her parents and baby brother into a newly built house. Living with her parents, she quickly learns that the world is full of secrets and myths that mark her family -- her mother's thwarted dreams, her father's addiction to work, and the mysterious emotional economy of their proper marriage. Longing to leave, Lorna vows she will never marry of have children, but before long she finds herself having grown up far too fast.

From the memories of her family and of the wounds they inflicted on one another, she tells an extraordinary tale of thwarted love, failed religion, and the salvation she found in books. As a portrait of a family and a young girl's place in it, it is unsurpassed.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0066214432
• ISBN 13: 9780066214436
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 281