Fai clic su di un'immagine per andare a Google Ricerca Libri.
Sto caricando le informazioni... On Chapel Sands: My Mother and Other Missing Persons (2019)di Laura Cumming
Sto caricando le informazioni...
Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. I loved this book. That being said, it's not exactly what it says on the tin. Instead of an account of the child's disappearance, with some context before and some wrapping up after the event, it is instead a memoir of the early years of the author's mother, focusing on how her life was shaped by the domineering father and the repressive silence on all things personal in that family. There is much talk of art, which is fitting for the memoir of a woman who grows up to be an artist and also marry an artist, and much talk of Tennyson, which felt less fitting and I mostly skimmed over any lengthy bits about him. So the kidnapping is in the title, and it is certainly a crucial, defining event in the memoir, but it is not the focus of the book; the book is so much more, and it is so much better because of it. The blurb I read about this book said that it comes from the author discovering that her mother had been kidnapped for 3 days when she was a young girl. And so begins an odyssey into family history, Englishness, class, and Fen country. Starting from a few rinds of information and trying to rebuild the events against the reticence of folk and the wash of the years and an intentional silence. The book is taken up solving the mystery of the abduction and the events surrounding it. Removing the mists around this event also meant revealing other events and people, which in turn meant revealing more events and more people in an environment of enforced silence. This book is a detective novel of sorts, a biography of sorts and an inventory of human hearts. Anyone who has ever tried to unravel family mysteries will feel both at home and sympathetic to the journey that Laura Cumming takes us on, not just as readers but also as fellow travellers for in all our family histories is much that was never meant to be said but the absence of words is sometimes louder that the words that finally get spoken. Set among a background of grey featureless seas, flat landscape, black and white photos and that curious lack of curiosity that is a feature of many English people. The black and white photos become a lens to see the past, by who is in them, and who is not, by how they are composed and their intrinsic quality of fact. Although this is someone else's story there is much to be enjoyed here because by writing the book, the author is inviting us to share this journey. It is a privilege you should accept. An unusual biography of the author’s mother, her extremely strict parents as she grew up in rural Lincolnshire, and the search for her full story. Like a detective story, the secrets are gradually revealed and guesses at the protagonists thoughts and motives are made. As the author is an art critic, there is telling analysis of a few photos from the family album, and imaginative use of paintings to, perhaps, help explain neighbours’ approach and attitudes to what had happened. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
Premi e riconoscimentiMenzioni
"In the fall of 1929, when Laura Cumming's mother was three years old, she was kidnapped from a beach on the Lincolnshire coast of England. There were no screams when she was taken, suggesting the culprit was someone familiar to her, and when she turned up again in a nearby village several days later, she was found in perfect health and happiness. No one was ever accused of a crime. The incident quickly faded from her memory, and her parents never discussed it. To the contrary, they deliberately hid it from her, and she did not learn of it for half a century. This was not the only secret her parents kept from her. For many years, while raising her in draconian isolation and protectiveness, they also hid the fact that she'd been adopted, and that shortly after the kidnapping, her name was changed from Grace to Betty. In Five Days Gone, Laura Cumming brilliantly unspools the tale of her mother's life and unravels the multiple mysteries at its core. Using photographs from the time, historical documents, and works of art, Cumming investigates this case of stolen identity with the toolset of a detective and the unique intimacy of a daughter trying to understand her family's past and its legacies. Compulsive, vivid, and profoundly touching, Five Days Gone is a masterful blend of memoir and history, an extraordinary personal narrative unlike any other."--Amazon Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
Discussioni correntiNessunoCopertine popolari
Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)362.8297092Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Social problems of & services to groups of people Problems of and services to other groups Families Specific problemsClassificazione LCVotoMedia:
Sei tu?Diventa un autore di LibraryThing. |
Finally, Laura's recognition that people are nor simply heroes or villains (though her mother remains her hero) brings the book to a thought provoking conclusion. Baddies turn out to have their redeeming features. Goodies keep silent. Humans are complicated. This is a book that may stay with you once you have turned the last page. ( )