Omaha Blues

A Memory Loop

Biography & Memoir, Literary
Cover of the book Omaha Blues by Joseph Lelyveld, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Joseph Lelyveld ISBN: 9781429931625
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publication: March 21, 2006
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Language: English
Author: Joseph Lelyveld
ISBN: 9781429931625
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication: March 21, 2006
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Language: English

The profoundly moving family history of one of America's greatest newspapermen.

As his father lies dying, Joseph Lelyveld finds himself in the basement of the Cleveland synagogue where Arthur Lelyveld was the celebrated rabbi. Nicknamed "the memory boy" by his parents, the fifty-nine-year-old son begins to revisit the portion of his father's life recorded in letters, newspaper clippings, and mementos stored in a dusty camp trunk. In an excursion into an unsettled and shakily recalled period of his boyhood, Lelyveld uses these artifacts, and the journalistic reporting techniques of his career as an author and editor, to investigate memories that have haunted him in adult life..

With equal measures of candor and tenderness, Lelyveld unravels the tangled story of his father and his mother, a Shakespeare scholar whose passion for independence led her to recoil from her roles as a clergyman's wife and, for a time, as a mother. This reacquired history of his sometimes troubled family becomes the framework for the author's story; in particular, his discovery in early adolescence of the way personal emotions cue political choices, when he is forced to choose sides between his father and his own closest adult friend, a colleague of his father's who is suddenly dismissed for concealing Communist ties.

Lelyveld's effort to recapture his family history takes him on an unforeseen journey past disparate landmarks of the last century, including the Scottsboro trials, the Zionist movement, the Hollywood blacklist, McCarthyism, and Mississippi's "freedom summer" of 1964. His excursion becomes both a meditation on the selectivity and unreliability of memory and a testimony to the possibilities, even late in life, for understanding and healing. In Omaha Blues, as Lelyveld seeks out the truth of his life story, he evokes a remarkable moment in our national story with unforgettable poignancy.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The profoundly moving family history of one of America's greatest newspapermen.

As his father lies dying, Joseph Lelyveld finds himself in the basement of the Cleveland synagogue where Arthur Lelyveld was the celebrated rabbi. Nicknamed "the memory boy" by his parents, the fifty-nine-year-old son begins to revisit the portion of his father's life recorded in letters, newspaper clippings, and mementos stored in a dusty camp trunk. In an excursion into an unsettled and shakily recalled period of his boyhood, Lelyveld uses these artifacts, and the journalistic reporting techniques of his career as an author and editor, to investigate memories that have haunted him in adult life..

With equal measures of candor and tenderness, Lelyveld unravels the tangled story of his father and his mother, a Shakespeare scholar whose passion for independence led her to recoil from her roles as a clergyman's wife and, for a time, as a mother. This reacquired history of his sometimes troubled family becomes the framework for the author's story; in particular, his discovery in early adolescence of the way personal emotions cue political choices, when he is forced to choose sides between his father and his own closest adult friend, a colleague of his father's who is suddenly dismissed for concealing Communist ties.

Lelyveld's effort to recapture his family history takes him on an unforeseen journey past disparate landmarks of the last century, including the Scottsboro trials, the Zionist movement, the Hollywood blacklist, McCarthyism, and Mississippi's "freedom summer" of 1964. His excursion becomes both a meditation on the selectivity and unreliability of memory and a testimony to the possibilities, even late in life, for understanding and healing. In Omaha Blues, as Lelyveld seeks out the truth of his life story, he evokes a remarkable moment in our national story with unforgettable poignancy.

More books from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Cover of the book The Amazing Bone by Joseph Lelyveld
Cover of the book Jacob's Ladder by Joseph Lelyveld
Cover of the book Terra by Joseph Lelyveld
Cover of the book The Fever by Joseph Lelyveld
Cover of the book From Bauhaus to Our House by Joseph Lelyveld
Cover of the book Jacob's Folly by Joseph Lelyveld
Cover of the book Dark Harbor by Joseph Lelyveld
Cover of the book 1789 by Joseph Lelyveld
Cover of the book Short Eyes by Joseph Lelyveld
Cover of the book Pout-Pout Fish: Back to School by Joseph Lelyveld
Cover of the book A Long Day at the End of the World by Joseph Lelyveld
Cover of the book The Heart Broke In by Joseph Lelyveld
Cover of the book Widening Income Inequality by Joseph Lelyveld
Cover of the book Writing in the Dark by Joseph Lelyveld
Cover of the book Bella Abzug by Joseph Lelyveld
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy