The Mighty Queens of Freeville: A Mother, a Daughter, and the Town that Raised Them Bothby Amy Dickinson
Hyperion, 2009. 225pgs. Nonfiction.
Amy Dickinson, sometime panelist on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" and heir to Ann Landers' syndicated advice column, tells the story of her tender, female-centric, laugh-out-loud family in this classy memoir of country life, city life, and country life again. Dickinson hopes to reverse her family's terrible "marital track record" (the men leave--the women stay) when she marries a boy so citified he cuts down a sapling three feet from the ground because he doesn't want to bend over. The marriage lasts long enough to produce Emily, a delightful little girl and charming young woman, and then Amy and her daughter are thrown back onto the ample, warm, and perishingly funny bosom of her family. The Mighty Queens of Freeville is filled with plenty of good advice, cracker-topped casseroles, Methodist barbeques, and a deep-seated understanding of farm life--"Like Park Avenue debutantes, our Holsteins were high maintenance, moved in packs, and were immune to reasoning or punishment." Truer words were never spoken, except for all the other true words spoken in this priceless narrative of family life.
LW
No comments:
Post a Comment