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Don't you ever : my mother and her secret son / Mary Carter Bishop.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: �2018 Publisher: New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2018]Copyright date: ©2018Edition: First editionDescription: viii, 247 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780062400734
  • 0062400738
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Part I: Two funerals. Losing the brother I hardly knew ; Losing the mother I thought I knew -- Part II: The parents who raised me. My mother: gentle hands and foul moods ; My father: joy, wonder, and self-hate -- Part III: Our world. The kingdom of the rich ; The people in the big house -- Part IV: The lie. Original shame ; On her own ; Polly and Roy ; Freaky little bastard ; Truth at the kitchen stove -- Part V: Finding and losing Ronnie. I walk into his barbershop ; We get acquainted ; What was wrong ; Trying to help ; Losses, gains, losses -- Part VI: Learning still. Unearthing Ronnie ; Our family shrivels -- Part VII: A finer sifting. I draw closer ; Walking with them.
Summary: While applying for a passport as an adult, Mary Carter Bishop made a shocking discovery: she had a secret half brother. Her mother told Mary Carter that the abandoned by was a "youthful mistake" from an encounter with a married man. Nine years later, Mary Carter tracked Ronnie down at the barbershop where he worked and found a near-broken man -- someone kind and happy to meet her, but someone deeply and irreversibly damaged by a life of neglect and abuse at the hands of an uncaring system. He was also disfigured due to a rare condition that would eventually kill him. Digging deep into her family's lives for understanding, Mary Carter unfolds a sweeping narrative of religious intolerance, poverty, fear, ambition, class, and social expectations. A riveting memoir about a family haunted by a shameful secret, Don't You Ever is a powerful story of a woman's search for her long-hidden sibling and of the factors that profoundly impact our individual destinies."--Adapted from book jacket.
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Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Biography Bishop, M. B622 Available 33111009228822
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"In this profound memoir, Mary Carter Bishop takes an openhearted and unflinching look at a family history that is equal parts love story and requiem for a brother she barely knew. Bishop turns her formidable investigative journalism skills inward to unearth long-simmering class and culture divides in bucolic rural Virginia."--Beth Macy

From a prizewinning journalist, Mary Carter Bishop, a moving and beautifully rendered memoir about the half-brother she didn't know existed that hauntingly explores family, class, secrets, and fate.

Applying for a passport as an adult, Mary Carter Bishop made a shocking discovery. She had a secret half-brother. Her mother, a farm manager's wife on a country estate, told Mary Carter the abandoned boy was a youthful "mistake" from an encounter with a married man. There'd been a home for unwed mothers; foster parents; an orphanage.

Nine years later, Mary Carter tracked Ronnie down at the barbershop where he worked, and found a near-broken man--someone kind, and happy to meet her, but someone also deeply and irreversibly damaged by a life of neglect and abuse at the hands of an uncaring system. He was also disfigured because of a rare medical condition that would eventually kill him, three years after their reunion. During that window, Mary Carter grew close to Ronnie, and as she learned more about him she became consumed by his story. How had Ronnie's life gone so wrong when hers had gone so well? How could she reconcile the doting, generous mother she knew with a woman who could not bring herself to acknowledge her own son?

Digging deep into her family's lives for understanding, Mary Carter unfolds a sweeping story of religious intolerance, poverty, fear, ambition, class, and social expectations. Don't You Ever is a modern Dickensian tale about a child seemingly cursed from birth; a woman shattered by guilt; a husband plagued by self-doubt; a prodigal daughter whose innocence was cruelly snatched away--all living in genteel central Virginia, a world defined by extremes of rural poverty and fabulous wealth.

A riveting memoir about a family haunted by a shameful secret, Don't You Ever is a powerful story of a woman's search for her long-hidden sibling, and the factors that profoundly impact our individual destinies.

Part I: Two funerals. Losing the brother I hardly knew ; Losing the mother I thought I knew -- Part II: The parents who raised me. My mother: gentle hands and foul moods ; My father: joy, wonder, and self-hate -- Part III: Our world. The kingdom of the rich ; The people in the big house -- Part IV: The lie. Original shame ; On her own ; Polly and Roy ; Freaky little bastard ; Truth at the kitchen stove -- Part V: Finding and losing Ronnie. I walk into his barbershop ; We get acquainted ; What was wrong ; Trying to help ; Losses, gains, losses -- Part VI: Learning still. Unearthing Ronnie ; Our family shrivels -- Part VII: A finer sifting. I draw closer ; Walking with them.

While applying for a passport as an adult, Mary Carter Bishop made a shocking discovery: she had a secret half brother. Her mother told Mary Carter that the abandoned by was a "youthful mistake" from an encounter with a married man. Nine years later, Mary Carter tracked Ronnie down at the barbershop where he worked and found a near-broken man -- someone kind and happy to meet her, but someone deeply and irreversibly damaged by a life of neglect and abuse at the hands of an uncaring system. He was also disfigured due to a rare condition that would eventually kill him. Digging deep into her family's lives for understanding, Mary Carter unfolds a sweeping narrative of religious intolerance, poverty, fear, ambition, class, and social expectations. A riveting memoir about a family haunted by a shameful secret, Don't You Ever is a powerful story of a woman's search for her long-hidden sibling and of the factors that profoundly impact our individual destinies."--Adapted from book jacket.

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