In this Book
- The Trouble with Being Born: A Novel
- Book
- 2009
- Published by: The University of Alabama Press
summary
Novel, memoir, and anti-memoir, The Trouble with Being Born depicts the lives of Frances and Joe, husband and wife. Told in their own alternating voices, they recall their lives, separately and together, and the divergent trajectories of their origins and aspirations.
Frances's story moves in reverse: beginning with her dementia in old age, her narrative moves backwards into lucidity, through a cruel and loveless marriage, the birth of her son Jeffrey, and into a childhood that she recalls fondly as a time of innocence and belonging.
Joe's memories begin in childhood, a bewildered boy struggling with poverty, racism, and isolation, and we watch him grow into a manhood fraught with wrong turns, rage, betrayals, and disappointment, caring in the end for the woman he has long mistreated.
The Trouble with Being Born is a stark meditation on memory and the struggle–both necessary and impossible–to remember.
Table of Contents
Additional Information
ISBN
9781573668101
Related ISBN(s)
9781573661416
MARC Record
OCLC
425969488
Pages
209
Launched on MUSE
2014-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2008