Ellen Douglas (1921–2012)

SELECTED FOR RE-READ 2023 - just as lovely the second time around. Determined to find and read her fiction!

Original Review
Before finding this book, I'd never heard of this southern author, who apparently draws heavily from her long family history for her fiction. I chose the book from the biography shelves based on the lovely snippet of prose on the back cover.

Part memoir, part contemplative musings, partly an exploration of southern history and a southern family's history...a dense, lush, marvelous reading experience!

Lovely writing, and beautifully puzzling in its construction. I loved this book so much, I will likely read it again (after finding and reading some of her fiction, perhaps.)… (altro)

Gorgeous writing and Douglas gives you a beautiful sense of place, making me want to visit Mississippi, something no other book has done. But (spoilers ahead) in this book about racism, she's ultimately too easy on the white characters who aren't Klansmen because they're racist, but just because they're bored and like being with men. Or the narrator's parasitic white family, living off the sweat and blood of the same black family for generations, but, well, that's the way it goes & we're all friends now. You can't write about this stuff and then back off from its consequences just because you're uncomfortable. So for writing and everything up until the end, I'd give it a 4.5. For the "we're all friends here after all" ending, I'd give it the coward's 1 it deserves, so I’m averaging them.

Coming back to this in 2020, I have even less patience for it now. I don’t know what the math is math is, but it’s a 1.… (altro)

Before finding this book, I'd never heard of this southern author, who apparently draws heavily from her long family history for her fiction. I chose the book from the biography shelves based on the lovely snippet of prose on the back cover.

Part memoir, part contemplative musings, partly an exploration of southern history and a southern family's history...a dense, lush, marvelous reading experience!

Lovely writing, and beautifully puzzling in its construction. I loved this book so much, I will likely read it again (after finding and reading some of her fiction, perhaps.)… (altro)