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Reading My Father

Audiobook
Nonfiction: Memoir / Literary
Unabridged   10.5 hour(s)
Publication date: 04/26/2011

Reading My Father

A Memoir

Available from major retailers or BUY FROM AMAZON
Audio CD ISBN:9781611744996
Digital Download ISBN:9781611745009

Summary

William Styron’s youngest child explores the life of a fascinating and difficult man whose own memoir, Darkness Visible, searingly chronicled his battle with major depression.

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Product Description

Alexandra Styron’s parents—the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sophie’s Choice and his political activist wife, Rose—were, for half a century, leading players on the world’s cultural stage. Alexandra was raised under both the halo of her father’s brilliance and the long shadow of his troubled mind. From Styron’s youth and precocious literary debut to the triumphs of his best-known books and on through his spiral into depression, Reading My Father portrays the epic sweep of an American artist’s life. It is also a tale of filial love, beautifully written with humor, compassion, and grace.

Reviews/Praise

“A memoir perfect not just for general audio collections, but for any interested in literature and literary biographies.”
      —California Bookwatch

“A multi-dimensional, continually fascinating portrait of William Styron’s life.”
      —The Washington Post

“Fluid and fascinating, dark and funny, Alexandra Styron’s book brings her father before us in all of his complexity, a literary lion, roaring his way through America's post-war landscape.”
      —Geraldine Brooks, author of March and People of the Book

“Readers passionate about American literature will be fascinated by Alexandra’s insightful tales about her complicated father and his circle, which included Peter Matthiessen, Norman Mailer, and Arthur Miller.”
      —Booklist [starred review]

“[Styron] draws subtle comparisons to other giants of her father’s literary fraternity—pugnacious, capricious, and sometimes cruel men like Norman Mailer and Arthur Miller—to outline the question at the heart of her reflection: Is his art enough of an excuse? The memoir’s eloquent prose and fluid structure suggest his talent may be hereditary. A–
      —Entertainment Weekly

Author Bio

ALEXANDRA STYRON is the author of a novel All The Finest Girls. A graduate of Barnard College and the MFA program at Columbia University, Alexandra’s work has appeared in several anthologies as well as The New Yorker, The New York Times, Avenue, Real Simple, and Interview among other publications. She lives with her husband and two children in Brooklyn, New York.