Riverside Remembered
Riverside Remembered

Author: Wallace Neal Briggs

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2021-12-14

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 0813188350

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A moving personal memoir of Mississippi in the 1920s and the bitter harvest of racial repression. As the story opens, six-year-old Buster Briggs boards a Pullman car headed south over the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and we embark with him on what will become his journey from childhood into adolescence. Bus Briggs is a white boy from Indiana who spends his summers and Christmases at his grandparents' Mississippi homeplace—Riverside. Travel with him on this journey of discovery. Join Bus and his cousins as they string popcorn and chinaberries for the yule tree, savor ice cream made from rare Mississippi snow, eat cornbread crumbled in buttermilk, enjoy all-day suckers and dill pickles at the general store. Meet the extended family that lives at Riverside—Buster's grandparents Mammy and Pappy, his aunt Allie and uncle Cally, and his cousins—as well as their black neighbor Mattie Riley and her son Leroy. At the heart of this story lies Buster's strong and sustaining friendship with Leroy. From his Pullman window, Buster first sees Leroy sitting on a stile near Riverside waving at the passing train. Leroy soon becomes Buster's fellow explorer, fishing instructor, and best friend. Before Leroy waves goodbye to Buster's departing train for the last time, an unbreakable bond is formed with the gift of a pocketknife—and what happens because of that gift. Even so, the racial prejudices of the time dictate that the paths of their lives diverge. Wallace Briggs set out to write a memoir of his family and of his own youth, but he has shaped a story that is far more than a personal recollection. Its themes are among the most powerful in literature—love and death, family dynamics, the innocence and selfishness of childhood, the struggle with cultural mores. What Briggs has produced is a work of great power and many pleasures, as finely constructed as a novel or stage play. His prose is crisp, cool, and sweet, like a slice of the watermelon chilling in the artesian well-water at Riverside.

Remembering the Darkness
Remembering the Darkness

Author: Veronica Shapovalov

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 2001-08-24

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 1461615380

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This engrossing collection of prison memoirs by Russian women is the first to portray the direct experiences of the wide range of women who were incarcerated in Soviet prisons and camps. Comprising the stories of women from all classes and backgrounds, this book covers the entire span of the Gulag's existence from the 1920s to the 1980s, including the little-known periods of political repression of the 1960s and 1980s. These memoirs and letters provide a rich portrait of how women led everyday life in prison and in the camps, of the strategies of accommodation and resistance they employed, and the challenges they faced when they reentered Soviet society. Although readers will hear the voices of women who were in excruciating physical and emotional pain, they will also find remarkable testimonies to the agency and resilience of women who struggled against incredible odds. Written by women from all stations in life and from drastically different backgrounds, these stories reconstruct not only the world of the Gulag but also its meaning for society at large. The documents excerpted here point to areas of Soviet history and culture that have yet to be fully investigated as they illuminate women's experiences of friendship, work, hope, inspiration, loss, and terror. All the works selected for the collection are united by their authors' sense of group and individual identity. To varying degrees, all of them associate their experiences with events and people beyond their personal experiences and immediate surroundings, thus expanding the traditional perspective of women's writing. These riveting stories, never before published in English or Russian, will appeal to scholars and students of Soviet history and literature, as well as general readers interested in women's history.

Paru Remembers
Paru Remembers

Author: Nakhat Yasmin Ahmed

Publisher: Notion Press

Published: 2019-07-31

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 1645875636

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At an age when respectable ladies seldom ventured out of their homes, woman of the Kulamkara Tharavad were travelling abroad and introducing innovative changes into their home and community. Parukutty writes about the Kulamkara Tharavad describing an era when up to forty families, lived together in their ancestral home. A woman’s beauty, family intrigue, malevolence and simple fun, brought about the beginnings of a progressive and powerful family, which propelled the village into the 21st century.