Runaway

Notes on the Myths That Made Me

De: Erin Keane

Narrado por: Erin Keane

From Erin Keane, editor in chief at Salon, comes a touching memoir about the search for truths in the stories families tell.

In 1970, Erin Keane’s mother ran away from home for the first time. She was thirteen years old. Over the next several years, and under two assumed identities, she hitchhiked her way across America, experiencing freedom, hardship, and tragedy. At fifteen, she met a man in New York City and married him. He was thirty-six.

Through a deft balance of journalistic digging, cultural criticism, and poetic reimagining, Keane pieces together the true story of her mother’s teenage years, questioning almost everything she’s been told about her parents and their relationship. Along the way, she also considers how pop culture has kept similar narratives alive in her. At stake are some of the most profound questions we can ask ourselves: What’s true? What gets remembered? Who gets to tell the stories that make us who we are?

Whether it’s talking about painful family history, #MeToo, Star Wars, true crime forensics, or The Gilmore Girls, Runaway is an unforgettable look at all the different ways the stories we tell—both personal and pop cultural—create us.

©2022 Erin Keane (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Personal family history intertwined with pop culture

Erin did a great job of challenging the family history she was told as a child and debunking some of it and confirmed other parts with investigation and facts she uncovered. It was interesting to also hear how she mixed her family story with relevant information about the culture surrounding the story. Really enjoyed hearing Erin read her own work.