"From the New York Times bestselling author of Le Divorce, a dazzling meditation on the mysteries of the "wispy but material" family ghosts who shape us. Growing up in the small river town of Moline, Illinois, Diane Johnson always dreamed of floating down the Mississippi and off to se...

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Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Johnson, Diane 1934- (Author)
Format:	Book
Language:	English
Published:	New York, NY Viking 2014
Subjects:	Johnson, Diane, > 1934- > Family BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women Alltag, Brauchtum Frau Pioneers > Middle West > Biography Home > Middle West Novelists, American > Biography Moline (Ill.) > Biography Middle West > Biography Middle West > Social life and customs Biografie
Online Access:	Cover image Inhaltsverzeichnis
Summary:	"From the New York Times bestselling author of Le Divorce, a dazzling meditation on the mysteries of the "wispy but material" family ghosts who shape us. Growing up in the small river town of Moline, Illinois, Diane Johnson always dreamed of floating down the Mississippi and off to see the world. Years later, at home in France, a French friend teases her: 'Indifference to history...that's why you Americans seem so naive and don't really know where you're from.' The j'accuse stayed with Johnson. Were Americans indifferent to history? Her own family seemed always to have been in the Midwest. Surely they had got there from somewhere? In digging around, she discovers letters and memoirs written by generations of stalwart pioneer ancestors that testify to more complex times than the derisive nickname 'The Flyover' gives the region credit for. With the acuity and sympathy that her novels are known for, she captures the magnetic pull of home against our lust for escape and self-invention. This spellbinding memoir will appeal to fans of Bill Bryson, Patricia Hampl, and Annie Dillard"..
Physical Description:	XVIII, 263 S. Ill.
ISBN:	9780670016402