Oedipus Road: Searching for a Father in a Mother's Fading Memory - Softcover

T Dodge

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0875651534 ISBN 13: 9780875651538

Publisher: Texas Christian University Press, 2006

Synopsis

On March 30, 1992, Tom Dodge lost his stepfather and inherited the duty of caring for his mother, a woman he confesses he never got to know. Suddenly he was confronted with the extent to which she had slipped into the fog of Alzheimer's. During his childhood, Dodge was never allowed to bring up the topic of his birth, but his mind whirled with questions: Who was my real father? Where was he? Who am I? Now, even if he summoned the courage to ask for the truth, would she be able to tell him? This memoir, interweaving the twin themes of adult responsiblity for a parent suffering from Alzheimer's and the search for a birth parent, is a painful account, raw with emotion, of an alienated adolescence. But it is also a nostalgic look back at life in small-town Texas in the 1940s and 1950s, a life where young boys frolicked in the swimming hole and worked in the family garden. Oedipus Road is a timeless and timely, funny and heart-breaking, evocative account of one man's journey down the road of self-discovery.

About this title

From the Author:

Life after Alzheimer's
Alzheimer's disease operates like a computer incapable of saving its files. It's there, and operable, but continually starting over. I learned after much tribulation that my mother and I can still have fun. There are things she greatly enjoys, but the enjoyment is fleeting. She laughs at the sight of a fat man eating an ice cream cone, the ice cream melting down his hand. Then, the image is vapor as if it never happened. But there is good in this, and a realization that life for us all is endlessly fleeing, that pleasure is transitory, and eternity abides in a laughing face.

About the Author:

An author and commentator on KERA radio in Dallas, Tom Dodge taught English at Mountain View College in Dallas and Blinn College in Brenham, Texas. His previous books are A Literature of Sports (1980) and A Generation of Leaves (1977), a translation of Greek lyrics.

About this edition

• Publisher: Texas Christian University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0875651534
• ISBN 13: 9780875651538
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 212