Tattoo for a Slave - Hardcover

Calisher, Hortense

2.75

8 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 015101096X ISBN 13: 9780151010967

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004

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A "tattoo" is a bugle call, a summoning that lingers in the ear. Although Hortense Calisher's family eventually migrated north to New York City, the echoes of their days as a slave-owning Jewish family in the South still resonate with this acclaimed author, who uncovers a part of history never before so strongly and tenderly revealed.

Calisher traces her family's years in the South and their transformative move up north, beautifully evoking the mood and texture of the early twentieth century. Her family was an eccentric combination of Jewish and Southern traditions and tragedies. Her Virginia-born father, a perfume manufacturer, was twenty-two years older than her German-born mother. Marked by longer-than-normal gaps between the generations and conflicts between the mercantile and the scholarly, the "American" and the �migr�, her family is characterized by Calisher as "volcanic to meditative to fruitfully dull, and bound to produce someone interested in character, society, and time."

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

PRAISE FOR "TATTOO FOR A SLAVE"
"This is belles-lettres as bete noire: its meaning sneaks up from behind and stuns you by degrees."--"The New York Times Book Review"
"Calisher's courage and high style would be a marvel at any age."--"O, The Oprah Magazine"
PRAISE FOR "TATTOO FOR A SLAVE"

"This is belles-lettres as bete noire: its meaning sneaks up from behind and stuns you by degrees."--"The New York Times Book Review"

"Calisher's courage and high style would be a marvel at any age."--"O, The Oprah Magazine"
PRAISE FOR"TATTOO FOR A SLAVE"

"This is belles-lettres as bete noire: its meaning sneaks up from behind and stuns you by degrees."--"The New York Times Book Review"

"Calisher's courage and high style would be a marvel at any age."--"O, The Oprah Magazine"
PRAISE FOR TATTOO FOR A SLAVE
"This is belles-lettres as bete noire: its meaning sneaks up from behind and stuns you by degrees."--The New York Times Book Review
"Calisher's courage and high style would be a marvel at any age."--O, The Oprah Magazine
PRAISE FOR TATTOO FOR A SLAVE

"This is belles-lettres as bete noire: its meaning sneaks up from behind and stuns you by degrees."--The New York Times Book Review

"Calisher's courage and high style would be a marvel at any age."--O, The Oprah Magazine

From the Back Cover:

"Offers more than enough reward as it lets family history illuminate . . . a national history."--The Seattle Times
A "tattoo" is a bugle call, a summoning that lingers in the ear. Although Hortense Calisher's family eventually migrated north to New York City, the echoes of their days as a slave-owning family in the South still resonate with this acclaimed author. Her Virginia-born father, a perfume manufacturer, was twenty-two years older than her German-born mother. Marked by longer-than-normal gaps between the generations and conflicts between the mercantile and the scholarly, the "American" and the emigre, her family is characterized by Calisher as "volcanic to meditative to fruitfully dull, and bound to produce someone interested in character, society, and time."
Hortense Calisher is past president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and PEN. Three-time finalist for the National Book Award, she is the author of many distinguished novels and short stories. She lives in New York City.
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