Sometimes it gives me the shivers that she can write like this.
This is the first book set in the place we live. In the time she was that age. Was it really like this? Southeast Michigan in the eighties was more sinister than I ever realized apparently.
Does it surprise you when your memories of a time are so different from your child's? Or your parents? Or spouse?
26 comments:
It doesn't surprise me when folks have the rashomon effect. Very human.
Patti, you have to be damn proud of all her accomplishments. And how exciting to read the rough drafts ahead of time.
Yes and no, to answer your question...but it's fascinating when certain things are identical and others are widely at variance when there's just a bit of different information or experience available to the two parties in question...and learning about that difference Makes the differences comprehensible.
People who had childhoods and adolescences that weren't relatively fraught and anxious seem to me to be forgetting, or perhaps repressing, something...but perhaps they were simply Very fortunate. No one I knew was having that good a time, including the people I didn't know or like very well, as far as I could tell.
I had a very good time between 15-18. Before that (12-15), not so much because I chose a friend who elevated herself by demeaning others.
I was very Fortunate when my parents put me in a very small school where no one was excluded because they needed the bodies.
Can't wait to read this book!
I'm surprised how forgetful I am about my childhood days. My sister and friends remember stuff I just completely forgot. Mine were pretty innocent, I'm lucky that way.
When is the release date?
Or siblings...
Yes, it does. I remember my home (not my childhood, mind you) as a haven. My seven year older sister remembers poverty, and my other sister hardly remembers anything.
July 7th, I think.
Of course I can't read the excerpt because I would have to sign up for Facebook and I don't want to do that. I really dislike things being tied to F-book that way, it seems like blatant hucksterism.
As for memories differing with those of others about a specific time, I have had an interest time reminiscing with my older brother (older by 6 years) about our childhood. I remember things, such as was I in trouble a lot, one way and he recalls it another. I was always of the opinion I was kind of a problem kid, he says no, and our parents never thought that. Gee, what do ya know?
I'm constantly amazed at how my own memories of long-ago seem like fiction now. Have I really been fishing on the Mississippi? Did I really catch fireflies in the dusk of an Iowa summer? Do I really remember the sulphur smell of that Hawaiian volcano? Or are those just implants or movies I once saw?
Can't wait to see what my girls remember/interpret about their youth.
Memory is completely subjective. When we have family gatherings and talk about past events, everyone has a different perspective.
I can say being a Ann Arbor kid of the 80s it was scary and sinister.
Often I think I remember something and then realize it's a snapshot of it I remember. Or a story someone else told.
Nice images, Eric.
It must be very difficult for a teenager living in a college town. You probably grow up much too fast being around college students all the time.
As a Champaign-Urbana kid of the '80s I was as oblivious then as I am now.
Hey, I was there once. It was not quite as sinister as Ann Arbor. Unless rural is sinister.
I did learn "Muck Fichigan" at an early age.
(Wrong log-in above.)
never heard that but I can understand the sentiment. At least in the past.
As Anais Nin said, "Memory is a great betrayer."
I think it's less whether family members remember things exactly the same way than that they have the same emotional memory of an event. I come from a very close-knit and affectionate family. When we share stories of our childhoods, we don't always remember the same details, but our takeaway is always the same. On the other hand, my husband's family is much more distant with each other. They NEVER share family stories. Sometimes it seems to me that he and his siblings didn't even grow up in the same house!
My son certainly remembers a different childhood than my daughter. And I think my brother's would be different from mine. I wonder if females are more likely to share similar memories than opposite sex sibs.
I'm betting age is more important for childhood memories. My brother is two years older and remembers much more than I about many things. But, I was oblivious.
Well, to one set of memories. But my brother, three years younger, has memories of times after I went off to college. Of course, my kids were one year apart so they shared pretty much the same space.
No, it's not surprising. In fact, quite often one of us will tell a story and the other (usually me) will say "that's now what happened at all!"
My sisters are 10 and 13 years younger than me so have a very different perspective of things than I do (or my brother, just a year younger than me). They were still kids when I got married and moved out.
Jeff M.
That's really two separate families.
True. Jackie's grandmother, never a subtle woman, asked my mother if she had two husbands!
Jeff M.
I'm waiting eagerly for this one. It will be my first Abbott. :)
Memory is so strange. My brother has such different memories of our growing up years. I remember one thing and he remembers the opposite. It's amazing sometimes. It's almost as if we grew up in parallel universes.
He was much happier than I was. Or at least, it would appear so.
Life. Go figure.
Well this one is very different from her others.
We really are very different--all of us.
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