Apple, Tree

Writers on Their Parents

De: Lise Funderburg - editor

Narrado por: Robin Miles, full cast

It happens to us all: We think we’ve settled into an identity, a self, and then out of nowhere and with great force, the traces of our parents appear to us, in us - in mirrors, in gestures, in reaction and reactivity, at weddings and funerals, and in troubled thoughts that crouch in dark corners of our minds.

In this masterful collection of new essays, the apple looks at the tree. Twenty-five writers deftly explore a trait they’ve inherited from a parent, reflecting on how it affects the lives they lead today - how it shifts their relationship to that parent (sometimes posthumously) and to their sense of self.

Apple, Tree’s all-star lineup of writers brings eloquence, integrity, and humor to topics such as arrogance, obsession, psychics, grudges, table manners, luck, and laundry. Contributors include Laura van den Berg, S. Bear Bergman, John Freeman, Jane Hamilton, Mat Johnson, Daniel Mendelsohn, Kyoko Mori, Ann Patchett, and Sallie Tisdale, among others. Together, their pieces form a prismatic meditation on how we make fresh sense of ourselves and our parents when we see the pieces of them that live on in us.

The full list of narrators includes Elisabeth Rodgers, Kevin Kenerly, Kyla Garcia, Steven Jay Cohen, Dara Rosenberg, Janet Song, Feodor Chin, Bronson Pinchot, and Robin Miles.

©2019 Lise Funderburg. Introduction © 2019 by Lise Funderburg. Copyright for individual essays remains with the contributors (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing

Ok.

The stories were pretty good and enlightening but some of the narration was painfully dull.

Tedious

While there was a bit of drama in one or two of the stories, I expected to hear at least one "Mommie Dearest".