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The Resource Men we reaped : a memoir, Jesmyn Ward

Men we reaped : a memoir, Jesmyn Ward

Creator
Contributor
Summary
"We saw the lightning and that was the guns; and then we heard the thunder and that was the big guns; and then we heard the rain falling and that was the blood falling; and when we came to get in the crops, it was dead men that we reaped."--Harriet Tubman"In five years, Jesmyn Ward lost five young men in her life--to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the bad luck that can follow people who live in poverty, particularly black men. Dealing with these losses, one after another, made Jesmyn ask the question: Why' And as she began to write about the experience of living through all the dying, she realized the truth--and it took her breath away. Her brother and her friends all died because of who they were and where they were from, because they lived with a history of racism and economic struggle that fostered drug addiction and the dissolution of family and relationships. Jesmyn says the answer was so obvious she felt stupid for not seeing it. But it nagged at her until she knew she had to write about her community, to write their stories and her own. Jesmyn grew up in poverty in rural Mississippi. She writes powerfully about the pressures this brings, on the men who can do no right and the women who stand in for family in a society where the men are often absent. She bravely tells her story, revisiting the agonizing losses of her only brother and her friends. As the sole member of her family to leave home and pursue higher education, she writes about this parallel American universe with the objectivity distance provides and the intimacy of utter familiarity. A brutal world rendered beautifully, Jesmyn Ward's memoir will sit comfortably alongside Edwidge Danticat's "Brother, I'm Dying," Tobias Wolff's "This Boy's Life," and Maya Angelou's" I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." Biographical Note: Jesmyn Ward grew up in DeLisle, Mississippi. She received her MFA from the Univ. of Michigan and has been a Stegner Fellow at Stanford and a Grisham Visiting Writer in Residence at the Univ. of Mississippi. She is currently an assistant professor of creative writing at the Univ. of South Alabama. She is the author of the novels "Where the Line Bleeds" and" Salvage the Bones," for which she won the 2011 National Book Award, and was a finalist for the NYPL Young Lions Literary Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, as well as a nominee for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Edition
Unabridged.
Extent
1 online resource (8 hr., 42 min.)
Note
Downloadable audio file
Isbn
9781490615042
Link
Instance
Label
Men we reaped : a memoir
Title
Men we reaped
Title remainder
a memoir
Statement of responsibility
Jesmyn Ward
Creator
Contributor
Narrator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
"We saw the lightning and that was the guns; and then we heard the thunder and that was the big guns; and then we heard the rain falling and that was the blood falling; and when we came to get in the crops, it was dead men that we reaped."--Harriet Tubman"In five years, Jesmyn Ward lost five young men in her life--to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the bad luck that can follow people who live in poverty, particularly black men. Dealing with these losses, one after another, made Jesmyn ask the question: Why' And as she began to write about the experience of living through all the dying, she realized the truth--and it took her breath away. Her brother and her friends all died because of who they were and where they were from, because they lived with a history of racism and economic struggle that fostered drug addiction and the dissolution of family and relationships. Jesmyn says the answer was so obvious she felt stupid for not seeing it. But it nagged at her until she knew she had to write about her community, to write their stories and her own. Jesmyn grew up in poverty in rural Mississippi. She writes powerfully about the pressures this brings, on the men who can do no right and the women who stand in for family in a society where the men are often absent. She bravely tells her story, revisiting the agonizing losses of her only brother and her friends. As the sole member of her family to leave home and pursue higher education, she writes about this parallel American universe with the objectivity distance provides and the intimacy of utter familiarity. A brutal world rendered beautifully, Jesmyn Ward's memoir will sit comfortably alongside Edwidge Danticat's "Brother, I'm Dying," Tobias Wolff's "This Boy's Life," and Maya Angelou's" I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." Biographical Note: Jesmyn Ward grew up in DeLisle, Mississippi. She received her MFA from the Univ. of Michigan and has been a Stegner Fellow at Stanford and a Grisham Visiting Writer in Residence at the Univ. of Mississippi. She is currently an assistant professor of creative writing at the Univ. of South Alabama. She is the author of the novels "Where the Line Bleeds" and" Salvage the Bones," for which she won the 2011 National Book Award, and was a finalist for the NYPL Young Lions Literary Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, as well as a nominee for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
Accompanying matter
technical information on music
Cataloging source
RECBC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Ward, Jesmyn
Dewey number
  • 813/.6
  • B
Form of composition
not applicable
Format of music
not applicable
LC call number
PS3623.A7323
LC item number
Z46 2014
Literary text for sound recordings
other
Music parts
not applicable
PerformerNote
Narrated by Cherise Boothe
http://library.link/vocab/relatedWorkOrContributorName
  • Boothe, Cherise
  • OverDrive, Inc
  • Recorded Books, Inc
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Ward, Jesmyn
  • Ward, Jesmyn
  • African American women authors
  • Rural poor
  • African American men
  • African American men
  • African American women authors
  • Rural poor
  • Mississippi
Transposition and arrangement
not applicable
Label
Men we reaped : a memoir, Jesmyn Ward
Link
Instantiates
Publication
Note
Downloadable audio file
Antecedent source
unknown
Capture and storage technique
digital storage
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
not applicable
Configuration of playback channels
unknown
Content category
spoken word
Content type code
  • spw
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Dimensions
  • not applicable
  • unknown
Edition
Unabridged.
Extent
1 online resource (8 hr., 42 min.)
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Groove width / pitch
not applicable
Isbn
9781490615042
Kind of cutting
not applicable
Kind of disc cylinder or tape
not applicable
Kind of material
unknown
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
44531ce9-e310-478f-952a-0f83c0e975c1
Publisher number
Z07857
Quality assurance targets
unknown
Reformatting quality
access
Sound
sound
Special playback characteristics
digital recording
Specific material designation
  • other
  • remote
Speed
other
System control number
  • (OCoLC)880847302
  • (OCoLC)ocn880847302
Tape configuration
not applicable
Tape width
not applicable
Label
Men we reaped : a memoir, Jesmyn Ward
Link
Publication
Note
Downloadable audio file
Antecedent source
unknown
Capture and storage technique
digital storage
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
not applicable
Configuration of playback channels
unknown
Content category
spoken word
Content type code
  • spw
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Dimensions
  • not applicable
  • unknown
Edition
Unabridged.
Extent
1 online resource (8 hr., 42 min.)
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Groove width / pitch
not applicable
Isbn
9781490615042
Kind of cutting
not applicable
Kind of disc cylinder or tape
not applicable
Kind of material
unknown
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
44531ce9-e310-478f-952a-0f83c0e975c1
Publisher number
Z07857
Quality assurance targets
unknown
Reformatting quality
access
Sound
sound
Special playback characteristics
digital recording
Specific material designation
  • other
  • remote
Speed
other
System control number
  • (OCoLC)880847302
  • (OCoLC)ocn880847302
Tape configuration
not applicable
Tape width
not applicable

Subject

Genre

Library Locations

    • Manchester City LibraryBorrow it
      405 Pine St, Manchester, NH, 03104, US
      42.992271 -71.458785

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