I Hate to Leave This Beautiful PlaceI Hate to Leave This Beautiful Place
Title rated 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 16 ratings(16 ratings)
Book, 2013
Current format, Book, 2013, , All copies in use.A memoir details the haunting and redemptive events of the author's life, covering such topics as his con-man father's betrayal, the murder-suicide of a houseguest, and his decade spent in the Arctic as a translator of Inuit tales.
The National Book Award-nominated author of The Bird Artist presents a memoir of the haunting and redemptive events of his life, covering such topics as his con-man father's betrayal, the murder-suicide of a guest in his home and his decade spent in the arctic as a translator of Inuit tales. 40,000 first printing.
'A bracing and no-nonsense memoir, infused with fresh takes on love, death, and human nature.' ' Kirkus Reviews, starred review
As with many of us, the life of acclaimed novelist Howard Norman has had its share of incidents of 'arresting strangeness.' Yet few of us connect these moments, as Norman has done in this spellbinding memoir, to show how life tangles with the psyche to become art. Norman's story begins with a portrait, both harrowing and hilarious, of a Midwest boyhood summer working in a bookmobile, in the shadow of a grifter father and under the erotic tutelage of his brother's girlfriend. His life story continues in places as far-flung as the Arctic, where he spends part of a decade as a translator of Inuit tales'including the story of a soapstone carver turned into a goose whose migration-time lament is 'I hate to leave this beautiful place''and in his beloved Point Reyes, California, as a student of birds. In the Arctic, he receives news over the radio that 'John Lennon was murdered tonight in the city of New York in the USA.' And years later, in Washington, D.C., another act of deeply felt violence occurs in the form of a murder-suicide when Norman and his wife loan their home to a poet and her young son. Norman's story is also stitched together with moments of uncanny solace. Of life in his Vermont farmhouse Norman writes, 'Everything I love most happens most every day."
In the hands of Howard Norman, author of The Bird Artist and What Is Left the Daughter, life's arresting strangeness is made into a profound, creative, and redemptive memoir.
A memoir of the haunting and redemptive events of the acclaimed writer's life'the betrayal of a con-man father; a murder-suicide in his family's house; the presence of an oystercatcher'each one, as the saying goes, stranger than fiction.
A memoir of the haunting and redemptive events of the acclaimed writer's life&;the betrayal of a con-man father; a murder-suicide in his family's house; the presence of an oystercatcher&;each one, as the saying goes, stranger than fiction.
&;A bracing and no-nonsense memoir, infused with fresh takes on love, death, and human nature.&; &; Kirkus Reviews, starred review
As with many of us, the life of acclaimed novelist Howard Norman has had its share of incidents of &;arresting strangeness.&; Yet few of us connect these moments, as Norman has done in this spellbinding memoir, to show how life tangles with the psyche to become art. Norman&;s story begins with a portrait, both harrowing and hilarious, of a Midwest boyhood summer working in a bookmobile, in the shadow of a grifter father and under the erotic tutelage of his brother&;s girlfriend. His life story continues in places as far-flung as the Arctic, where he spends part of a decade as a translator of Inuit tales&;including the story of a soapstone carver turned into a goose whose migration-time lament is &;I hate to leave this beautiful place&;&;and in his beloved Point Reyes, California, as a student of birds. In the Arctic, he receives news over the radio that &;John Lennon was murdered tonight in the city of New York in the USA.&; And years later, in Washington, D.C., another act of deeply felt violence occurs in the form of a murder-suicide when Norman and his wife loan their home to a poet and her young son. Norman&;s story is also stitched together with moments of uncanny solace. Of life in his Vermont farmhouse Norman writes, &;Everything I love most happens most every day.&;
In the hands of Howard Norman, author of The Bird Artist and What Is Left the Daughter, life&;s arresting strangeness is made into a profound, creative, and redemptive memoir.
The National Book Award-nominated author of The Bird Artist presents a memoir of the haunting and redemptive events of his life, covering such topics as his con-man father's betrayal, the murder-suicide of a guest in his home and his decade spent in the arctic as a translator of Inuit tales. 40,000 first printing.
'A bracing and no-nonsense memoir, infused with fresh takes on love, death, and human nature.' ' Kirkus Reviews, starred review
As with many of us, the life of acclaimed novelist Howard Norman has had its share of incidents of 'arresting strangeness.' Yet few of us connect these moments, as Norman has done in this spellbinding memoir, to show how life tangles with the psyche to become art. Norman's story begins with a portrait, both harrowing and hilarious, of a Midwest boyhood summer working in a bookmobile, in the shadow of a grifter father and under the erotic tutelage of his brother's girlfriend. His life story continues in places as far-flung as the Arctic, where he spends part of a decade as a translator of Inuit tales'including the story of a soapstone carver turned into a goose whose migration-time lament is 'I hate to leave this beautiful place''and in his beloved Point Reyes, California, as a student of birds. In the Arctic, he receives news over the radio that 'John Lennon was murdered tonight in the city of New York in the USA.' And years later, in Washington, D.C., another act of deeply felt violence occurs in the form of a murder-suicide when Norman and his wife loan their home to a poet and her young son. Norman's story is also stitched together with moments of uncanny solace. Of life in his Vermont farmhouse Norman writes, 'Everything I love most happens most every day."
In the hands of Howard Norman, author of The Bird Artist and What Is Left the Daughter, life's arresting strangeness is made into a profound, creative, and redemptive memoir.
A memoir of the haunting and redemptive events of the acclaimed writer's life'the betrayal of a con-man father; a murder-suicide in his family's house; the presence of an oystercatcher'each one, as the saying goes, stranger than fiction.
A memoir of the haunting and redemptive events of the acclaimed writer's life&;the betrayal of a con-man father; a murder-suicide in his family's house; the presence of an oystercatcher&;each one, as the saying goes, stranger than fiction.
&;A bracing and no-nonsense memoir, infused with fresh takes on love, death, and human nature.&; &; Kirkus Reviews, starred review
As with many of us, the life of acclaimed novelist Howard Norman has had its share of incidents of &;arresting strangeness.&; Yet few of us connect these moments, as Norman has done in this spellbinding memoir, to show how life tangles with the psyche to become art. Norman&;s story begins with a portrait, both harrowing and hilarious, of a Midwest boyhood summer working in a bookmobile, in the shadow of a grifter father and under the erotic tutelage of his brother&;s girlfriend. His life story continues in places as far-flung as the Arctic, where he spends part of a decade as a translator of Inuit tales&;including the story of a soapstone carver turned into a goose whose migration-time lament is &;I hate to leave this beautiful place&;&;and in his beloved Point Reyes, California, as a student of birds. In the Arctic, he receives news over the radio that &;John Lennon was murdered tonight in the city of New York in the USA.&; And years later, in Washington, D.C., another act of deeply felt violence occurs in the form of a murder-suicide when Norman and his wife loan their home to a poet and her young son. Norman&;s story is also stitched together with moments of uncanny solace. Of life in his Vermont farmhouse Norman writes, &;Everything I love most happens most every day.&;
In the hands of Howard Norman, author of The Bird Artist and What Is Left the Daughter, life&;s arresting strangeness is made into a profound, creative, and redemptive memoir.
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- Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.
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