Into That Good Night (Hardcover)

by Ron Rozelle (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Rozelle splices together two eras in a potentially tricky structure that ultimately yields a spare, beautifully written memoir about fatherhood, bravery, memory and one man in particular. His recollection of his childhood in a small east Texas town also reconstructs his father, Lester, a once vigorous, strong-willed man whose own memory was decimated by Alzheimer's. Other sections from the early 1990s compare Rozelle's still-new experiences of paternity with his evolving relationship with his own father. When Rozelle, a high school English teacher, was growing up in Oakwood in the 1950s and '60s, Lester was the school superintendent of the "white" school, where he formerly taught, as well as of the town's "black" school. While Rozelle offers many details of life in a small Southern town, this is not an exercise in nostalgia. Lester was an upright man who publicly supported the Supreme Court decision that mandated school integration. That same quiet strength helped Rozelle deal with the death of his mother, who committed suicide after she was unsuccessfully treated for cancer. The author's skillful and compassionate writing brings both the father of his childhood and the man who could not remember the names of his own children to life. Lester died of a stroke in 1992, but this serves, as his son intended, as a moving tribute.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Like a stone washed smooth by the sea, Rozelle's language glows in the light and feels good in the hand. He shares the story of his father's life as superintendent of schools in the east Texas town of Oakwood. His father was quiet, orderly, sensible, and fair: he began that town's long journey toward school integration. Chapters toothsome with memories of Christmas, the pull and tug of siblings, and bootleg beer alternate with those chronicling the elder Rozelle's slippage into memory lapse and dementia. There's not a shred of sentimentality here, however; Rozelle's crystalline little memoir brings not tears but the joy of good things remembered, like the scent of "a nickel held tight in a sweaty palm on a hot day" or the childish lesson that half-past one was "not thirteen-thirty." Rozelle rejoices, and readers with him, in his sisters, in his tangled memories of his mother, and above all, in the legacy of his straight-arrow and genuinely good dad. Moving and joyous: like his dad, Rozelle is a teacher. His students are very lucky indeed. GraceAnne A. DeCandido

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 181 pages
• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux (T); 1st edition (August 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374177112
• ISBN-13: 978-0374177119
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,243,423 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written book, January 14, 2008

By	M. Newman "Martha" (Wyoming) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Into That Good Night (Paperback)

This is one of the best books I have ever read! I devoured it in a day. Beautifully written.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A memoir about memory., January 13, 1999

By	Ed Brickell (Dallas, TX United States) - See all my reviews

As a former student of Ron Rozelle's, I am both excited and proud to finally find a book listed under his name. He has managed to evoke East Texas with a clarity and simplicity that reminds me of one of his (and my) favorite authors, Ernest Hemingway. Yet Ron's voice is uniquely his own.

Throughout this brief, quietly courageous memoir which focuses on the beauty and fragility of memory, Ron reveals much about himself and his family -- both humorous and painful. By doing so, he has revealed much about our struggles with age and the ways our memories, the places where we once lived, and even the people we love can fade in and out of focus -- and, sometimes, be lost forever. Fortunately, we have writers like Ron to capture and hold those memories for all of us.

Ron alludes to my own home town, Palestine, Texas, frequently in his book. I have seen Palestine change over the years since I was a child, and I found my emotions about many of those changes echoed in Ron's memories of his own nearby home town of Oakwood.

Congratulations, Ron. Passages of your book continue to reverberate in my mind -- and, I'm sure, the minds of many others. For a book about the fragility of memory, that is no small accomplishment.

5.0 out of 5 stars Life Well-Lived, February 22, 2009

By	EGranfors (Santa Clarita, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Into That Good Night (Paperback)

Rozelle's memoir of life in Texas drifts easily between his childhood, one in which he idolized his father and feared/misunderstood his mother, and his adulthood as he father descends into dementia. This poignant story paints a vivid picture of a time of innocence and security, of schools where teachers are in charge, and parents are not trying to be "buddies." Each of the characters, from Brown to Miss Mae and Uncle Gaston, is painted with a light, unique touch. This book brought me both wise words and tears.
It is a wonderful experience.