Mobile Home: A Memoir in Essays (Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award For Creative Nonfiction Ser.)

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Synopsis
Uprooting ourselves and putting down roots elsewhere has become second nature. Americans are among the most mobile people on the planet, moving house an average of nine times in adulthood. This book explores one family's extreme and often international version of this common experience. Inspired by the author's globe-wandering childhood-during which she lived in seventeen homes across four continents, ranging in location from the Alaskan tundra to a Colombian jungle, a posh flat in London to a doublewide trailer near the Arabian Gulf-the book maps the emotional structures and metaphysical geographies of home. In ten interconnected essays, the author examines cultural histories that include Bedouin nomadic traditions and modern life in wheeled mobile homes, the psychology of motels and suburban tract housing, and the lived meanings within the built landscapes of Manhattan, Stonehenge, and the Winchester Mystery House. More personally, she traces the family histories that drove her parents to seek so many new horizons-and how those places shaped her upbringing. Her mother viewed houses as a kind of large-scale plastic art ever in need of renovating, while her father was a natural adventurer and loved nothing more than to travel, choosing a life of flight that also helped to mask his addiction to alcohol. These familial experiences color the author's current journey as a mother attempting to shape a flourishing, rooted world for her son. Her memoir in essays skillfully explores the flexible, continually inventive natures of place, family, and home.
Copyright:
2020

Book Details

Book Quality:
Excellent
Book Size:
183 Pages
ISBN-13:
9780820357928
Publisher:
University of Georgia Press
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Megan Harlan
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
Nonfiction, Travel, Biographies and Memoirs, Parenting and Family
Submitted By:
Worth Trust
Proofread By:
Worth Trust
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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