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1 of 1 copy available
“A beautiful, compelling memoir...Raban’s final work is a gorgeous achievement.” —Ian McEwan, New York Times best-selling author of Lessons
In June 2011, just days before his sixty-ninth birthday, Jonathan Raban was sitting down to dinner with his daughter when he found he couldn’t move his knife to his plate. Later that night, at the hospital, doctors confirmed what all had suspected: that he had suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke, paralyzing the right side of his body. Once he became stable, Raban embarked on an extended stay at a rehabilitation center, where he became acquainted with, and struggled to accept, the limitations of his new body—learning again how to walk and climb stairs, attempting to bathe and dress himself, and rethinking how to write and even read.
Woven into these pages is an account of a second battle, one that his own father faced in the trenches during World War II. With intimate letters that his parents exchanged at the time, Raban places the budding love of two young people within the tumultuous landscape of the war’s various fronts, from the munition-strewn beaches of Dunkirk to blood-soaked streets of Anzio. Moving between narratives, his and theirs, Raban artfully explores the human capacity to adapt to trauma, as well as the warmth, strength, and humor that persist despite it. The result is Father and Son, a powerful story of mourning, but also one of resilience.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 19, 2023 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593863282
- File size: 361003 KB
- Duration: 12:32:05
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from July 17, 2023
This exceptional posthumous memoir from National Book Critics Circle Award winner Raban (Bad Land, 1942–2023) runs on two equally rewarding tracks. The first involves Raban’s six-week stay at a rehabilitation facility following his sudden stroke in 2011; the second concerns his father’s WWII correspondences with Raban’s mother while he was at war in Italy and France and she remained in England. In the book’s early sections, Raban delves into his parents’ back-and-forth as he navigates endless days in the hospital, soothed by their fortitude in the face of even greater adversity. Drawing on the work of various historians, he places their letters in the war’s chronological context, and finds himself growing emotionally closer to his father, with whom he barely had a relationship until he was in his 40s. Before long, a second father figure comes into focus: Tony Judt, whose 2006 book Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945 Raban reads “as a self-imposed course on intellectual rehabilitation... and a history of my (and my father’s) lifetime on my own subcontinent,” and whose Memory Chalet (in which Judt discusses his ALS-induced quadriplegia) Raban calls “one of the most engaging memoirs that I have ever read.” Like Judt before him, Raban catalogs “the catastrophic progress of one’s own deterioration” with warmth and intellectual rigor, effortlessly weaving together personal history and literary critique. Tirelessly researched and told with remarkable candor, this often breathtaking memoir is a worthy successor to Raban’s hero’s. -
James Langton's accent reflects the background of Jonathan Raban, a gifted British writer who relocated to Washington state. Enunciation and emotions are clear as Langton recounts Raban's moment-to-moment responses to a hemorrhagic stroke and the paralysis that followed. Langton smoothly embraces the elements of Raban's memoir--literary criticism combined with stories of his own healing. Raban also describes his parents' first encounter and growing love, based on their letters and journals. Langton's account of Raban's father's battles in WWII is more remote than the immediacy and liveliness he delivers as Raban faces his own battles to recover in a rehabilitation facility, understand his new limitations, and adjust to his trauma. Langton's narration honors the wit of the late writer. S.W. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine -
May 31, 2024
National Book Critics Circle Award winner Raban's (Bad Land) candid memoir begins with his hospitalization following a hemorrhagic stroke in 2011. Raban's narrative traces two storylines. The first describes his extended stay in a rehabilitation center as he relearned basic tasks and attempted to regain the life he lost. The second story is an eloquent history of his parents' early married life during World War II. It's drawn from letters and journals kept during the soldiering years of his father, Peter. Raban addresses his father's complicated legacy, reflecting on this man of faith who was also antisemitic, and considering how Peter came to terms with his own last days. Peter died in 1996, whereas the author died at the age of 80 in January 2023, and this book was published posthumously. James Langton narrates, sensitively communicating Raban's reflections as he recovered from his stroke and providing a measured account of his father's wartime correspondence. While the book intertwines the lives of father and son, it does not tie up loose ends. Audiobook listeners will find another kind of closure, however, as Raban--the consummate travel writer--winds down his personal journey with humor and honesty. VERDICT An affecting blend of memoir and history, highly recommended for fans of Paul Hendrickson's Fighting the Night.--Sharon Sherman
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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