Ghostbread (Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction) [Hardcover]

Sonja Livingston (Author)

Book Description

Series: Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction | Publication Date: November 1, 2009

"When you eat soup every night, thoughts of bread get you through." Ghostbread makes real for us the shifting homes and unending hunger that shape the life of a girl growing up in poverty during the 1970s.

One of seven children brought up by a single mother, Sonja Livingston was raised in areas of western New York that remain relatively hidden from the rest of America. From an old farming town to an Indian reservation to a dead-end urban neighborhood, Livingston and her siblings follow their nonconformist mother from one ramshackle house to another on the perpetual search for something better.

Along the way, the young Sonja observes the harsh realities her family encounters, as well as small moments of transcendent beauty that somehow keep them going. While struggling to make sense of her world, Livingston perceives the stresses and patterns that keep children--girls in particular--trapped in the cycle of poverty.

Larger cultural experiences such as her love for Wonder Woman and Nancy Drew and her experiences with the Girl Scouts and Roman Catholicism inform this lyrical memoir. Livingston firmly eschews sentimentality, offering instead a meditation on what it means to hunger and showing that poverty can strengthen the spirit just as surely as it can grind it down.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Exquisite in its details and insights, Ghostbread shows us the invisible undersides of poverty. Sonja Livingston renders this so solidly that we come to understand the roots of despair, and the beauty that can be found in the midst of squalor. In an age when memoir exploits the seamier sides of life, thrusting their authors into the limelight, this book holds back, quietly resisting shock value in favor of understanding."—Judith Kitchen, author of House on Eccles Road

"Ghostbread weaves together a child’s experience of not belonging, the perilous ease of slipping into failure, and the deep love that can flow from even a highly troubled parent. This is rich, sensual storytelling. An amazing debut from a wonderful new writer."—Dinty W. Moore, author of Between Panic and Desire (American Lives)

"’I know where I came from.’ With this declaration, the author of Ghostbread takes us on a journey through a childhood scarred by poverty and graced by love. Like an American version of Angela’s Ashes, the book allows us to encounter—and see, taste, and smell it—through the eyes of a beleaguered and intelligent child. We are grateful to be reminded of the human reality at the heart of a world that is all too often hidden in governmental ‘poverty indicators,’ and also glad that the author has survived to tell the tale."—Kathleen Norris, author of Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life

"[A]n absolutely astonishing debut . . . harrowing and hilarious."—Caroline Leavitt, author of Girls in Trouble

"Livingston reveals the daily challenges poverty-stricken young children face. Her thoughtful testimony sheds new light on a tragic predicament that now affects not only lower-income families, but the entire nation."—Booklist

About the Author

Sonja Livingston teaches in UCLA Extension s Creative Writing Program and is an elementary school counselor. She lives in Rochester, New York.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: University of Georgia Press (November 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0820333980
• ISBN-13: 978-0820333984
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #964,090 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sonja's writing has earned a NYFA Fellowship in Nonfiction Literature, an Iowa Review Award, Pushcart Prize nominations, and an AWP Book Award. In addition, she has received grants from the Vermont Studio center and the Deming Fund for Women. Her writing has appeared in several texts on writing, as well as many journals, including the Iowa Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, AGNI, and others.

Sonja teaches creative writing in the MFA Program at the University of Memphis. She splits her time between Memphis and Rochester, New York and is currently at work on a novel set in Western New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Livingston Superb!, March 24, 2010

By 

Perfectionist (Montgomery, AL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghostbread (Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction) (Hardcover)

I'm not given to 5 star ratings easily. They have to be earned and this young author, Sonja Livingston, has a way of writing that simply blows me away. Her style is clear and crisp - straight to the point. Yes, Ghostbread is non-fiction, so you could say this is a memoir. But it's also short stories - a mechanism Livingston uses brilliantly to present her childhood. And let me say now this is not a whining, self-pitying attempt at catharsis. Livingston's use of language is powerful and direct. Speaking of her mother Sonja says, "Her tales were rich in gook and detail. Nothing was left out. Except for fathers. They were ghosts that folded themselves into the edges of her tales, vapors that floated in and out of delivery rooms, with us somehow, but never really showing themselves." I love how the descriptive writing style is neither flowery nor overblown.

Livingston assembled Ghostbread chronologically, which makes sense in that it's helpful for the reader to understand the family history. The author is the 5th child of 7 - most of whom were born of different fathers - and grinding poverty forced multiple moves upon the family. This almost constant moving meant the children never had a real idea of 'home' or stability. Periodically, Livingston would ask her mother why she wasn't like other mothers. "Why don't you have a husband? Why don't you make regular meals? Why don't you teach me to do up my hair?" To which mother, from flinty New Hampshire, would respond, "Live free or die - I'm telling you girl, there's no other way to be." And thus, with those words early in the book, you understand instinctively that these children are on their own.

Mostly, Ghostbread is a book of longing - for understanding; for an engaged mother; for some idea of what a father might be like; for basics like bread to stave of hunger, and a full refrigerator of food; for a sense of self. As a result, Livingston grew up not really knowing who she was, what she wanted, or where she was going. Perhaps through biological fate, her path diverged from that of her peers after high school. Though capable and intelligent, Livingston's main roadblock was not having anyone in front who could guide her to the next chapter of her life - college - and to a future beyond what she could envision.

It's always hardest being the first. It's lonely going down a different path, and yet somehow the author escapes her childhood - but not completely - and not that easily. "I managed to make my way... but remnants of the past remain. Like a ghost, the past is always there, flicking its gauzy fingers my way."

Livingston now works with children and sees herself in some of their narratives. She understands these children and their stories, but this clarity comes with a price. "I celebrate and cry for those who still live in poverty's clutches... I'd love to point them in new directions... ideals and opportunities and social theorizing are just fine, but if you must understand only one thing, it is this: a warm hand and words whispered into the ear are what we want. Paths that can be seen and followed and walked upon are what we most need. And in the end, the thing that feeds us, no matter how tenuous, is what we will reach for."

It's for writing such as this that you should rush out and get this book. Now. Really.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A breathtaking work, November 18, 2009

By 

Golda Myears (Lancaster, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghostbread (Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction) (Hardcover)

"Ghostbread" joins the very small handful of best books I've ever read; and I've read quite a lot.

I was dazzled by how powerfully low-key it was. Proof that less is indeed more.

It had me smiling one minute; catching my breath the next.

It has one of the funniest lines I've ever come across -- delivered in a sly way.

I was slightly disappointed when the last three pages were blank! I wanted more to savor; but realized the author served up just enough.

A tip of my (Mets' baseball) cap to the author.

Oh, and I eagerly await the movie. (I started casting it as soon as I was finished.)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ghostbread by Sonja Livingston, November 4, 2009

By 

Elizabeth Osta (Pittsford, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghostbread (Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction) (Hardcover)

This book tells the truth with lyrical phrases that dance off the page. With poverty and neglect the themes that are the woven backdrop for this story, we meet a resilient child who becomes a woman long before her time. We are gently taken by the hand to see a life of squalor that continues to have substance. And we learn that amidst continual loss, there is somehow a gain, a kernel of light that sparkles throughout this brilliant work. We can only hope fro more from this author.