|
Loading... All Over but the Shoutin'by Rick Bragg
My blog post about this book is at this link. (  ) SuziQoregon | Mar 31, 2013 |  Read this years ago and it’s definitely a book that you can pick up again and re-read in spurts. I really enjoy Rick Bragg’s writing style. I like how he uses the story of his mother to frame his journey to become a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter. His ability to “see a story” in everyone makes this book stand out -- you’re not just getting his childhood memories, but also the stories of a homeless men, migrant workers, and cleaning ladies. Their voices are funny, poignant, and insightful and add context to his rough childhood. At one point he says, “every life deserves dignity” and it’s with this outlook, standing in the shoes of his subjects (even his alcoholic father’s), that he shows a level of understanding and compassion that many memoirs lack. This balances the book’s grittiness and makes for a great read. ( ) ellahill | Oct 25, 2012 | All Over but the Shoutin. Rick Bragg. 1997. Finally! When I checked this book out of the library the year it came out, I always had to return it so it could be sent to a requesting library! I guess I am the last person in Alabama to have read it. He is such a good writer: I read the book in 3 days. This is Bragg’s story of his life until he wins the Pulitzer Prize and realizes his dream of buying his mother a house of her own. Bragg presents searing description of his dirt poor childhood and his gradual rise in the newspaper world. His writing reminds me of Pat Conroy, Ben Windham, Clyde Edgerton and Roy Blount. Read it if you haven’t. (  ) judithrs | Jul 28, 2012 | This book was good but not great. The memoir by Rick Bragg tells of his life growing up in the South. He was raised in a poor family by a mother who dearly loved her children. His father was a drunk and alternated between being neglectful and abusive. His mother sacraficed everything to raise her 3 boys as best she could. The memoir chronicles Braggs climb out of poverty and into the world of journalism where he ultimately wins the Pulitzer Prize. But all along the way, he gives credit and thanks to his mother for her love and sacrifice. I felt Bragg was trying to tell the story of his mother but he kept veering back to himself and his accomplishments while leaving his Mom behind in the dust of Alabama. (  ) amachiski | Mar 30, 2011 | I read this one awhile back, and I loved it. I tend to like confessional autobiographies that don't shy away from flaws and shortcomings, and so I tend to be partial to works that are. Bragg's book is all that and then some--growing up poor in Alabama, small town with the those who have too much and those who have too little, and having to deal with it with the support of his mother. It's tough writing, gritty, and in your face with no apologies and lots of personal pain. GREAT!(yeah, I know this was a lame critique, but I didn't know where to begin with this one--so overwhelming and so moving) (  ) HankIII | Jul 26, 2010 | no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0679774025, Paperback)One reason Rick Bragg won a Pulitzer Prize for his feature articles at the New York Times is that he never forgets his roots. When he writes about death and violence in urban slums, Bragg draws on firsthand knowledge of how poverty deforms lives and on his personal belief in the dignity of poor people. His memoir of a hardscrabble Southern youth pays moving tribute to his indomitable mother and struggles to forgive his drunken father. All Over but the Shoutin' is beautifully achieved on both these counts--and many more.(retrieved from Amazon Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:21:32 -0500) This haunting, harrowing, gloriously moving recollection of a life on the American margin is the story of Rick Bragg, who grew up dirt-poor in northeastern Alabama, seemingly destined for either the cotton mills or the penitentiary, and instead became a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. It is the story of Bragg's father, a hard-drinking man with a murderous temper and the habit of running out on the people who needed him most. But at the center of this soaring memoir is Bragg's mother, who went eighteen years without a new dress so that her sons could have school clothes and picked other people's cotton so that her children wouldn't have to live on welfare alone. Evoking these lives--and the country that shaped and nourished them--with artistry, honesty, and compassion, Rick Bragg brings home the love and suffering that lie at the heart of every family. The result is unforgettable.… (more) |
 Google Books — Loading...Popular coversRatingAverage: (3.98)
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wikipedia in English (1)
1