Fugitive Spring: Coming of Age in the '50s and '60s [Paperback]

Deborah Digges (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Originally published in 1931, this compact, stylish volume offers technical advice that remains pertinent for today's desktop typesetter.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Digges, the author of two books of poetry, recalls growing up in 1950s Jefferson, Missouri, as the sixth of ten children in a Dutch Reformist family. Among her most vivid early memories are the family orchard whose apples were picked every August by prison inmates, the rats her doctor father used for his cancer research, and the pond where she almost drowned. Like the 1960s, Digges's adolescence was marked by rebellion; she dropped out of college (her father wanted her to be a medical artist), got married, and became pregnant. Living in California while her husband, an Air Force pilot, was away on endless missions, Digges began writing poetry and took writing courses at a nearby college. Although her prose has a poet's grace and vision, Digges's memoirs are disappointingly vague and disjointed. She sketchily portrays her parents and her siblings (her nine brothers and sisters are virtually indistinguishable), and she is surprisingly reticent about her development as a writer. An optional purchase . -- Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 221 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (June 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067974083X
• ISBN-13: 978-0679740834
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,929,047 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The power of truth, November 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Fugitive Spring: Coming of Age in the '50s and '60s (Paperback)

Digges is best known for her poetry, but this novel - a memoir - is a beautifully prolonged and powerful sigh of prose that wafts us from Digges' childhood through her adolescence, college, and first (failed) marriage to deposit us gently beside an unsteady but undaunted woman approaching middle age.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful to read, but frustrating too, June 11, 2000

By 

Suzanne Amara (MA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Fugitive Spring: Coming of Age in the '50s and '60s (Paperback)

I am not a poetry fan, and have not read Digges' poetry, but I can imagine from this book that she is very talented. Her prose is like poetry--beautiful to read and able to bring strong emotions to the reader, but as a memoir this book is a little frustrating. So much is started and not finished, or told about in bits and pieces. We are told of her mother's very tough last birth (the author is one of 10 children) but never what made it so tough or what the outcome is, we are told she has problems in her first marriage that lead to divorce, but never really are shown what is wrong in the marriage, and indeed all the people in this book don't come alive for me, including her parents, who are central characters. I don't mean to discourage reading of this book, I am very glad I read it and enjoyed it a great deal. I love her way of describing specific incidents, like her first week of college when she was so homesick or high school home ec, but I wish there was more to this book---I'd have loved to know more about her and more specifics on her life!