Wednesday, May 31, 2017

"Between Them", non-fiction from Richard Ford

This short book is subtitled "Remembering My Parents".  It is Richard Ford's first foray into published non-fiction.  He is the well established Pulitzer prize winning author of popular and directionally literate fiction, with his most successful novels such as "The Sportswriter" and "Independence Day" published in the late 1980's and the 1990's.

The book is in fact two memoirs.  The first in the book is about his father who died in 1960, and it was written in 2015.  The second is about his mother and that was written shortly after her death in 1981.  The two memoirs are intertwined by facts, and by the story from the perspective of their son the writer, now 73.

It is a thoughtful personal story.  The title can be thought of as reflecting Ford's relationship with them, or also the strong relationship between his parents.  Both ways of looking at the book work well.  From this perspective, Ford's experience as an only child resonated throughout as did the phrase "alone together" which has a universal aspect to it.

Each reader will relate based on their own experience certainly, and it could be time well spent. Ford's perspective opens up the memories.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home