Into That Good Night [Paperback]

Ron Rozelle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2000 | ISBN-10: 1881515311 | ISBN-13: 978-1881515319 | Edition: 2 Reprint

When his father began to show signs of Alzheimer's disease, Rozelle watched the man's painful transformation into a dependent and ultimately foreign person. In this haunting memoir, Rozelle recreates and reclaims the past for his father, offering a son's gift that will echo for a long time to come.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Texas Review Press; 2 Reprint edition (November 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1881515311
• ISBN-13: 978-1881515319
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,426,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

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

By 

Ed Brickell - See all my reviews

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

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

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

By 

Eileen Granfors (Santa Clarita, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't judge this book by it's simple title., April 7, 2007

By 

Apache Wind "Bookaholic" (Somewhere Over The Rainbow) - See all my reviews

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

The simple title belies a great author and an even greater reading experiance.

The author writes so that you actually *feel* you are there and know the streets and towns and things he speaks of and what you couldn't possibly see with your minds eye--he makes you feel with your heart.

A"MUST-READ" for anyone who has ever had a death made worse, by things left unspoken.