Somehow Form a Family: Stories That Are Mostly True [Paperback]

Tony Earley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 17, 2002

This is the book that in hardcover won unanimous praise from reviewers, who called it "beautiful and transcendent" (The Boston Globe), a book that "measures the arc of a culture's mortality in small, personal increments" (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), is written "in a poker-faced style that always seems on the verge of exploding into manic laughter or howls of pain" (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution).

They're right. Tony Earley is a writer so good at his craft that you don't read his words so much as inhale them. His first book of nonfiction is one of those unexpected classics, like Ann Lamott's Traveling Mercies, in which a great writer rips open his/her heart and takes the reader inside for a no-holds-barred tour.

In a prose style that is deceptively simple, Earley confronts the big things-God, death, civilization, family, his own clinical depression-with wit and grace, without looking away or smirking.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"I loved the smell of incense as much as the smell of beer, and probably for the same reasons. The sad truth is that I do not like Christians very much, particularly when they congregate." Such quasi-non sequiturs characterize Earley's elegant, evocative and often provocative prose, which never slips into sentimentality or self-indulgent reverie. His memoir begins with his childhood in a small Southern town where time is measured by television sitcoms, and his parents marital problems and his sister's death are counterbalanced with Star Trek, MASH and Happy Days. Yet suicidal depressions encroach, as Earley grows up and gets married, though he eventually finds a material and spiritual life that suits him. Earley illuminates the nuances of accumulated experience without diminishing the external milestones. Whether describing his father running away from home at age 13, his grandmother's obsessive religious fervor (she drove people from the house so she could speak to God) or an imagined conversation with his dead sister ("she would say `What happened to you?' and I would say, `My hair fell out' "), Earley allows remarkable access to his inner life. As in his highly praised novel (Jim the Boy) and short story collection (Here We Are Today), he continues to create a unique, compelling voice that combines stylized prose with an emotional openness to complex truths. (May 25)Forecast: Up-and-comer Earley's literary work is poised for commercial success. Selected by the New Yorker and Granta as one of today's best young fiction writers, he will make appearances across the country on a 16-city tour.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Somehow Form a Family proved to be a pleasant surprise to a reviewer who found Earley's Jim the Boy rather flat. This offering consists of stories, some fictional, others from his boyhood and more recent life, that should prove fascinating to adult listeners his age or older. Earley strikes some chords with tales related to growing up with black-and-white TV, parents separating, death of a close relative, coming of age and contemplating suicide in college, or simply being a rascally kid. There are both intimately confessional details of the author's search for spirituality and wry observations on the hype, madness, and marketing of an around-the-world record flight aboard an Air France Concorde. These stories will stick with the listener for quite some time. The work is written and read with care, expression, and the appropriate humor or irony by Earley. A fine addition to general adult collections; highly recommended. Cliff Glaviano, Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., OH
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books (May 17, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565123603
• ISBN-13: 978-1565123601
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,079,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Somehow Form A Good Book, November 2, 2006

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H. F. Corbin "Foster Corbin" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Somehow Form a Family: Stories That Are Mostly True (Paperback)

Tony Earley's third book consists of ten previously published pieces that in his introduction he says he hesitates to call essays but rather stories "mostly true because memory, like imagination, is largely a function of individual perception." So there you have it. At least, unlike the plethora of recently published writers who either don't seem to understand the difference between fiction and nonfiction or choose to ignore it, Mr. Earley acknowledges the difficulty of keeping the two completely separate. The "pieces" cover a variety of topics and for the most part have little in common with each other except the fine writing of the author.

I reread most of the articles and found myself liking them better the second time. I attribute that to Mr. Earley's attempt at honesty and his expertise with words and finally my seeing myself and members of my family in many of his pieces. (He also in his introduction hopes that his readers recognize themselves here.) How many writers would admit to something so politically incorrect as trying to kill a sick cat to put it out of its misery? ["Shooting The Cat"] His language is impeccable. On an autumn morning in North Carolina, a window was "intricately jeweled with frost." Dan Ledbetter (Earley's grandfather) at 6'4" was "so skinny that he seemed to have been constructed from spare parts." And the above-mentioned cat, in healthier days "had come to Granny's house in the usual way: it showed up on the back steps freshly weaned and mewed solicitiously, as if seeking work." I recognize the author's blue Carolina mountains, the Tennessee sighting of which always takes my breath away. Also, in the title piece, Mr. Earley remembers the bad reception of his family's Admiral television built in the 1950's and understood that his family was poor because they owned a black and white set too heavy for Hoss on "Bonanza" (my dad's favorite TV program) to pick up by himself. Mr. Earley also includes a thoughtful chapter on the uniqueness of words he heard in his childhood and is saddened that in only a generation these "colorful" expressions will die. ["The Quare Gene"] In a moving passage he remembers visiting his maternal greatgrandfather "well into his nineties" and being asked by the family patriarch, "Who are you?" The youngster replied, "I'm Reba's boy. Clara Mae's grandson." (At family reunions in East Tennessee, although I'm fairly sure my past is longer than my future, I am always referred to simply as "Frank's boy" and will remain forever nameless.)

In "A Worn Path," Mr. Earley traces his religious upbringing as a child at Rock Springs Baptist Church, his later flirtation with the Episcopal Church because he "loved the smell of incense as much as. . . the smell of beer," his attempts at atheism and finally his peace, (sort of) believing that he is watched over by a loving God and that "as we walk through the world, even along the dangerous paths we have chosen for ourselves, God worries about where we put our feet."

Regardless of who you are, where you are from, whether or not you believe in God or think you should kill sick cats, you will marvel at Mr. Earley's beautifully burnished prose. We can all be thankful that in spite of the fact that as a youngster, he seems to have watched television day in and day out, he still grew up to be a fine writer.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Part of Some Family, July 18, 2001

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Terri L. Smith "Romeo Is Bleeding" (Central, SC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Somehow Form a Family: Stories That Are Mostly True (Hardcover)

Tony Earley's book drew me in immediately...from the first page, the writing is captivating. As he walks the reader through his life from a prepubescent age until he becomes much of the man he is today, it is hard not to see his family, hear their laughter and their tears. His writing is easy to identify with...we all remember having emotions like those that he goes through. There is a face the reader can visualize for every character that appears. There is a voice for every person. This book is amazing.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit of a come down for Earley, May 28, 2006

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David J. Gannon (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Somehow Form a Family: Stories That Are Mostly True (Paperback)

I've read Earley's other two books--both of which were truly excellent--and I had high expectations for this effort, but was somewhat disappointed.

The trademark gentleness that marks Early's other work isn't as deftly handled here. Some of the stories don't really amount to much. Because the book is largely autobiographical I get the sense the material constrained the writer in ways fiction wouldn't.

Actually, to my mind the best writing in the book is the introduction where Early explains the "Mostly True" aspect of the title, wherein he muses about the clarity of memory and the ways in which it changes over time.

This isn't a bad little book. It just pales in comparisons to both Tony's other book of short stories or his Jim the Boy novel. Try one of those if you liked this one--you're in for a treat if you do.