Pink Houses and Family Taverns (Illinois) - Softcover

Bradway, Becky

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9780253215222: Pink Houses and Family Taverns (Illinois)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253215226 ISBN 13: 9780253215222

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2002

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... Becky Bradway writes compellingly about the place where she was raised and still lives, but she also knows that the hidden component of place is time and its ceaseless motion and the motion it spawns in all of us. On these many stable planes, we are always passing through." -from the Foreword by Michael Martone Much of what inspires Pink Houses and Family Taverns, a collection of creative nonfiction by Becky Bradway, is the author's upbringing in rural southern Illinois. Coming of age among a family of carpenters, housewives, and factory workers, Bradway works to get an education and to build a different kind of life for herself (in spite of social pressures to "keep her in her place"). Her dreams of becoming a writer and a professor often run head-on with the hometown's expectations that she keep her mouth shut like a "proper girl," and with the university's expectations that she toe a more formal, conservative line. The tension Bradway feels about "Being From There" permeates her memoir, as she negotiates the transitions between childhood and adulthood, rural life and urban life, ignorance and sophistication. She debates important life decisions and presents us with a vivid array of characters-family, friends, students-who have made an impression on her. Bradway writes in a conversational style that is often humorous and occasionally sardonic; and she approaches her subjects with sincerity, open-mindedness, and compassion. The essays are complemented by a selection of black-and-white photographs of the region and its inhabitants.

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Synopsis:

These creative essays by Illinois native Becky Bradway are both personal and narrative: They are memoir, as the author debates important life decisions and reveals details about her upbringing in a poor rural Illinois community, presenting us with a vivid array of characters - family and friends - who made an impression on her; and they are commentary on place, as contemporary events lead the author to engage the topics of race relations, class consciousness, social status, music/culture/landscape, and creative impulses. The essays are complemented by a selection of black-and-white photographs by Midwestern artists who share the author's vision of place. Pink Houses and Family Taverns is a collection of creative non-fiction essays by Becky Bradway, who grew up in rural Illinois and later came back to her home state to settle.

The essays are both personal and narrative: They are memoir, as the author debates important life decisions and reveals details about her upbringing among poor country folk in rural Illinois, presenting us with a vivid array of characters - family and friends - who made an impression on her; and they are commentary on place, as contemporary events lead the author to engage the topics of race relations, class consciousness, social status, music/culture/landscape, and creative impulses. Bradway writes in a style that is as unpretentious as it is ingratiating, oftentimes humorous and occasionally sardonic, and she approaches her subjects with sincerity, open-mindedness, and compassion. The essays are complemented by a selection of black-and-white photographs by Midwestern artists who share the author's vision of place.

About the Author:

Becky Bradway is a college professor and creative writer whose creative nonfiction essays and short stories have appeared in DoubleTake, North American Review, and American Fiction, among other publications. She lives in Normal, Illinois with husband, three children, and assorted pets. After working as an editor, secretary, janitor, Dairy Queen server, and UPS clerk, she now teaches creative writing and U.S. Studies at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. Raymond Bial, professional photographer and author, has published more than thirty critically acclaimed books of photographs for children and adults. These include a series of books on Native American tribes, and other titles of interest, most recently including A Handful of Dirt, The Ghost of Honeymoon Creek, Ghost Towns of the American West, and One-Room School. He lives with his wife and three children in Urbana, Illinois. Katharine E. Wright, a former zookeeper, has taught creative writing, ESL, and children's literature at several universities. She now lives in State College, Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter.

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