Clear Springs: A Family Story
by Bobbie Ann Mason
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In this memoir, the author of In Country and other award-winning books tells her own story, and the story of a Kentucky farm family, the Masons of Clear Springs. Clear Springs takes us back in time to recapture a way of life that has all but disappeared, a country culture deeply rooted in work and food and family, in common sense and music and the land. A multilayered narrative of three generations - Bobbie Ann Mason, her parents and grandparents - Clear Springs gracefully interlaces several show more different lives, decades, and locales, moving from the industrious life on a Kentucky farm to travels around the South with Mason as president of the Hilltoppers Fan Club; from the hippie lifestyle of the 1960s New York counterculture to the shock-therapy ward of a mental institution; from a farmhouse to the set of a Hollywood movie; from pop music concerts to a small rustic schoolhouse. Clear Springs depicts the changes that have come to family, to women, and to heartland America in the twentieth century, as well as to Bobbie Ann Mason herself. When the movie of Mason's bestselling novel In Country is filmed near Clear Springs, it brings the first limousines to town, even as it brings out once again the wisdom and values of Mason's remarkable parents. Her mother, especially, stands at the center of this book. Mason's journey leads her to a recognition of the drama and significance of her mother's life and to a new understanding of heritage, place, and family roots. show lessTags
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Bobbie Ann, born 1940, grew up not knowing her family history. This is a wonderful history of a proud but troubled family.
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Author Information
28+ Works 3,660 Members
Bobbie Ann Mason is the author of the novels "In Country" "Spence+Lila', & "Feather Crowns", which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award & won the Southern Book Award. Her short-story collection "Shiloh & Other Stories" won the PEN/Hemingway Award for First Fiction & was nominated for other major prizes. Her memoir, "Clear show more Springs", was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Her fiction has appeared in "The New Yorker", "The Atlantic Monthly", & elsewhere. She lives in Kentucky. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
Notable Lists
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Clear Springs: A Memoir
- Dedication
- For my mother
And in memory of my father and grandparents - First words
- It is late spring, and I am pulling pondweed.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"Wake up, get out of bed. Guess what! Hurry!"
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- Members
- 214
- Popularity
- 149,653
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.11)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 4
