Scraping By in the Big Eighties (American Lives)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.38 (715 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 080324309X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 227 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-03-06 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Being in a bad relationship kind of saps the old civic energy, I guess"). The shift from one narrative track to another is frustrating and jarring, and it happens dozens of times. This is, first and foremost, the timeless memoir of a daughter fighting her way out of the shadow of her mother's mental illness. Whether Singer is searching for the meaning of life at a Catskills Buddhist monastery or searching for her muse out of a Mexican rat-infested beach hut, her adventurousness is admirable. However, her story falters when she examines her own experiences through a global lens; after describing a devastating panic attack when she's mistaken for a homeless person by a
Rejecting the avid materialism of her generation and the violence of American culture, she vowed to surround herself with natural beauty, steer clear of her mentally ill mother, and contribute nothing to the fluorescent-lit, acronym-ridden, anesthetizing military-industrial complex. Singer blends memoir with cultural history to critique Reaganomics, military buildups in the face of eroding social programs and growing national debt, the hypocrisy of so-called family values, and her own complicity in all of it. Lyrical, meditative, occasionally heartbreaking, and often darkly comic, this book about mistakes blithely made in decades past is nonetheless still timely today.. Scraping By in the Big Eighties is, more than anything, about taking politics personally. Her quest, which she hoped would bring her peace, safety, and creative fulfillment, actually put her increasingly in harm's way. Meanwhile she would train herself to become a writer. It has, however, paid enormous dividends for readers who here have the perverse yet exquisite p
"Excellent book" according to Pat Walters. This is an excellent memoir as well as containing information on culture and society in the 1980's. I had read the book written by Natalia's sister which is written from a different angle though their experiences are the same even though they view some events in their lives a little differently.Scraping By in the Big Eighties (American Lives)