Gathering the Family

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Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 929.20973 EAN: 9780826211286 ISBN: 0826211283 Label: University of Missouri Press Manufacturer: University of Missouri Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 176 Publication Date: 1997-09 Publisher: University of Missouri Press Studio: University of Missouri Press
Editorial Reviews: In Gathering the Family the author re-creates scenes and episodes from his early life with his family. Although he begins his work as a biographer, Holtz comes to turn his researcher's eye on himself, frankly examining his thoughts of the family he grew up with. These interlocking essays examine the lives of his mother's struggling Finnish immigrant parents, who spoke no English; of his father's large, festive German American family; and of his doomed, laughing father, his gentle, overburdened mother, and his self-destructive younger brother. The intertwining effects of heredity, circumstance, and choice in individual lives are played out poignantly as he discovers that the family he was so troubled by in his youth has made him what he has become today.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: This is my family Comment: When my mother's cousin, Sylvia, called to tell her that Bill Holtz had written a book about our family, I was surprised. I had no idea anyone in the family was a college professor, let alone an author. Initially I was offended by what on the surface appeared to be a shabby treatment of family I had always loved or felt I knew through stories. However, after further reflection, I realized that the author was telling a painful story of his own struggles as he grew into adulthood. Granted, I am biased, this being a book about my family. Nonetheless, this is an outstanding treatment of an individuals struggles growing up with an impoverished immigrant family. Customer Rating: Summary: A Lasting Tribute and an Excellent Read Comment: William Holtz takes a risk in this moving memoir of growing up during the Depression, inviting his readers along as he explores his childhood from the vantage point of roughly fifty years. He candidly discusses the people he loved, and whom he would one day deliberately leave behind, a family plagued with serious problems including poverty, alcholism and depression. Even as he describes his youthful rejection, Holtz's expressive and loving treatment of his characters--and his eventual acceptance and appreciation of them for who they are--is a lasting tribute and an excellent read. More Reviews