From Publishers Weekly
In a voice as unadorned as a Midwestern plain, Weil, a "river rat" and documentary film producer, cumulatively builds a richly textured family history from 1894 to 1988. She chronicles the lives of two ordinary people: her father, a steamboat captain and mate, and her mother, a housewife. Although the memories are Weil's, this is her parents' story, and that steady focus sets this book apart from many self-absorbed memoirs. "Parents," Weil writes, "had lives before we were born, names we never knew them by, dreams we weren't in stories that began long before our own." When Mom was a schoolgirl in Cincinnati, classes were taught in German as well as English; when Dad began working on packet boats running between Pittsburgh and New Orleans, a mate had to read "a boat's moods," and not depend on radar. Dad had a "lurid" reputation; Mom "kept up with all the middle-class standards that she could." This intimate account of family life, deftly sprinkled with Americana (the Lindbergh kidnapping, the Depression, Pearl Harbor, Orphan Annie, Edgar Guest, Shirley Temple), constitutes an engaging sociocultural history of mid-America working-class life in the 20th century. Although Weil recalls her teenage shame "I didn't want anyone to know... that I'd been poor... had no hometown, no house with trees, no Dad at work and Mom at home in a nice crisp apron" she has obviously come to terms with being a "river rat." Weil's hometowns are the Delta Queen, the Valley Queen and the Island Queen, and she immerses even the landlocked reader into this world. Illus. (Apr.)Forecast: The university press imprint could scare some readers away, but Weil's book is for the general reader, not the specialist. It should sell well in St. Louis, Memphis and other Mississippi River towns.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In her memoir of life as a "river rat," writer and TV producer Weil (Continuing Education) shows how living a vagabond life as a child during the Great Depression brought adventure but also pain. While she and her older brother, Jim, loved their early days spent living aboard riverboats in the Midwest, the uncertainty of the family finances along with constant parental bickering left both with lasting scars. Their father, an independent, hotheaded man, often lost his jobs, resulting in frequent family moves and severe poverty. Although Weil constantly professes love for her parents, she also attributes her emotional problems as an adult to her dysfunctional family. This memoir, written shortly after her father's death, represents Weil's attempt to come to terms with her early life and especially her parents. She succeeds, especially in conveying the mystique of the riverboat life that her father found so attractive and that also lured her and her brother. Adept at characterization, Weil brings her friends, family, and acquaintances to life with crackling vitality. This book will appeal particularly to those interested in America's river literature. Recommended for public libraries. Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
