Central Standard: A Time, a Place, a Family (Bur Oak Book) [Hardcover]

Patrick Irelan (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press (August 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877458308
• ISBN-13: 978-0877458302
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,934,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Patrick Irelan's mother was a school teacher, and his father was a
railroad telegraph operator and depot agent. He attended a one-room
country school, graduated from high school in Bloomfield, Iowa, and
received the BA and MA degrees from the University of Iowa. For most of
his adult life, he has worked as a writer and editor of instructional
materials. Irelan is the father of two daughters. He lives in Iowa.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful stories, November 17, 2002

By 

Daniel Benton "Daniel Benton" (Iowa City, IA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Central Standard: A Time, a Place, a Family (Bur Oak Book) (Hardcover)

This is a book about growing up in depression-era and post-depression small town Iowa - stories about working for the
railroad, trying to eke out a living by farming, and the reality
of hard work and family life. Irelan evokes a time when family was important and makes everyday characters come to life in this
collection of essays about his parents and relatives as he grows up in southern Iowa.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real joy to read for anyone., May 23, 2003

By 

Jerry Simpson (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Central Standard: A Time, a Place, a Family (Bur Oak Book) (Hardcover)

You need not be from Iowa, be a farmer, railroad person, or have grown up during the depression to be truly entertained by this book. A story of a ordinary family that tells the truth, that no family is truly ordinary. We all share joy, grief, hardship, and love and live extrodinary aspects of our ordinary lives. Patrick tells his family's story with a manner true to his family's style. Plain but elegent, reserved but openly humerous, and with a depth that is easily felt but not described. I enjoyed it very much and hope you will as well.

Thanks

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not All Happy Familes Are Alike, November 27, 2002

By 

David Widmer (Dallas TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Central Standard: A Time, a Place, a Family (Bur Oak Book) (Hardcover)

Once Americans were connected by kin and neighborliness into communities linked by the railroad. Patrick Irelan's parents set up housekeeping in this America during the depths of the Great Depression, farming one depleted acreage after another. His father was a whiz telegrapher and soon both parents were working as station agents for the Burlington Railroad, happiest, his mother recalled, while living in a Nebraska depot.

Irelan captures the ritual and spectacle of railroading. In Allerton, Iowa, we wait for the train: preparation, anticipation, arrival--in seconds only the tracks and town remain. In Chicago, however, the train waits for us.

Central Standard is the story (twenty five, in fact) of a family typical, yet so unique as to be unknowable without a guide. Fortunately, the family has provided one.