List Books Supposing Ava's Man
| Original Title: | Ava's Man |
| ISBN: | 0375724443 (ISBN13: 9780375724442) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Audie Award for Narration by the Author or Authors (2002) |
Rick Bragg
Paperback | Pages: 259 pages Rating: 4.24 | 5989 Users | 555 Reviews
Mention Appertaining To Books Ava's Man
| Title | : | Ava's Man |
| Author | : | Rick Bragg |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 259 pages |
| Published | : | August 13th 2002 by Vintage (first published August 21st 2001) |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. Biography. Autobiography. Memoir. Biography Memoir |
Interpretation In Favor Of Books Ava's Man
The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of All Over but the Shoutin’ continues his personal history of the Deep South with an evocation of his mother’s childhood in the Appalachian foothills during the Great Depression, and the magnificent story of the man who raised her.Charlie Bundrum was a roofer, a carpenter, a whiskey-maker, a fisherman who knew every inch of the Coosa River, made boats out of car hoods and knew how to pack a wound with brown sugar to stop the blood. He could not read, but he asked his wife, Ava, to read him the paper every day so he would not be ignorant. He was a man who took giant steps in rundown boots, a true hero whom history would otherwise have beem overlooked.
In the decade of the Great Depression, Charlie moved his family twenty-one times, keeping seven children one step ahead of the poverty and starvation that threatened them from every side. He worked at the steel mill when the steel was rolling, or for a side of bacon or a bushel of peaches when it wasn’t. He paid the doctor who delivered his fourth daughter, Margaret -- Bragg’s mother -- with a jar of whiskey. He understood the finer points of the law as it applied to poor people and drinking men; he was a banjo player and a buck dancer who worked off fines when life got a little sideways, and he sang when he was drunk, where other men fought or cussed. He had a talent for living.
His children revered him. When he died, cars lined the blacktop for more than a mile.
Rick Bragg has built a soaring monument to the grandfather he never knew -- a father who stood by his family in hard times and left a backwoods legend behind -- in a book that blazes with his love for his family, and for a particular stretch of dirt road along the Alabama-Georgia border. A powerfully intimate piece of American history as it was experienced by the working people of the Deep South, a glorious record of a life of character, tenacity and indomitable joy and an unforgettable tribute to a vanishing culture, Ava’s Man is Rick Bragg at his stunning best.
Rating Appertaining To Books Ava's Man
Ratings: 4.24 From 5989 Users | 555 ReviewsRate Appertaining To Books Ava's Man
This was a great way to end the 2017 reading year. It's a solid 4.5, but I'm rounding up for sentimental reasons. I see a lot of my step-grandad, dad and uncles in this book. (I was going to say "aside from the moonshine," but now that I think about it....) Ava's Man is the second of Rick Bragg's books about his family. Where All Over but the Shoutin' focused mostly on Bragg's mother and the family's conflicted emotions surrounding his mostly absent, alcoholic, and abusive father, this book goesIn 2004, I (by happenstance, if not a strange, whimsical predestination) found myself uprooted from 35 years of stasis in Los Angeles, and replanted in semi-rural Northeast Alabama. Many of my friends and acquaintances back home (and, heck, most people I meet here) wonder why I'd do something that crazy. I really don't have an explanation for any of them, but after reading Rick Bragg's brilliant love-letter to NE Alabama and his family ("Ava's Man"), I can direct any questioners of my sanity to
A wonderfully gritty biography of the author's grandfather, whom he knows only through family legend, sung beautifully in the voice of the south. Dripping in metaphors and history, it left me whistful for my own past and thankful to be among my family as I absorbed it. As it's sat around the house it's been picked up by almost everyone and has developed an impromptu waiting list. I'm off to drop it at my Grandma Amy's right now.
I don't award five stars to many books, but Charlie's story is a real treasure and I savored every word of the author's almost poetic writing style. Thank you Rick Bragg for bringing the grandfather you never met to life. I don't think I will soon forget him.
I love Rick Bragg. I love his family almost as much as he does. I love his writing. I suspect that most of us have working class roots and can relate to elements of this family's story. If you haven't read this author yet, give yourself a treat and run to the bookstore or library. If you have, then you are nodding your head in agreement.
4.5 starsRick BraggRick Bragg's grandfather Charlie Bundrum would probably be surprised to learn that his grandson grew up to be a Pulitzer Prize winning writer. Charlie himself couldn't read, though he always asked his wife Ava to read him the newspaper so he wouldn't be ignorant. Charlie died before Bragg was born, so the author never knew his grandfather and only heard snippets about him from other people. When Bragg - who'd already penned several books about his southern family - decided to
This biography of Charlie Bundrum, Ava's Man, resonated so very much with my own memories of my grandpas. I treasured every single little detail of those hard times during the Great Depression. Both of my grandpas had large families. Both families had to rely on Mama to care for the kids, garden, livestock. The grandpas were on the road most of the time. My Mom was one of ten children, the oldest girl. My Dad was one of five, the oldest boy. The rustic shacks with no electricity, no indoor
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