![]() "In his keen focus on the 1963 death of John F. An elegantly written book, erudite, perceptive and at times painfully candid.” - Moira Hodgson, Wall Street Journal Taylor writes bracingly of life in the early ’60s, a time at once light-hearted and filled with dread-of polio, race riots and Russian missiles. Taylor chronicles the events of the following 12 months from the double viewpoint of a boy and of a middle-aged writer recollecting the past. “Part of the marvel of the The Hue and Cry at Our House is how one year of Taylor's life stands for the whole, which is a kind of microcosm of the magic of memoir, where one life can stand in for all of us.” - Los Angeles Times It is an utterly enchanting little masterpiece." - Andrew Solomon Reading this book is like reading all of Proust in just under two hundred pages. His insights are wise, his sense of humor always in evidence, and his yearning for lost time exquisitely palpable. "In this lyrical and brilliant memoir, Benjamin Taylor investigates his childhood with piercing clarity and unapologetic nostalgia. His brush with history has the breath of life." - Stephen Harrigan, New York Times Book Review "Taylor’s self-portrait of an odd, bewildered boy born into the frightening middle of the 20th century is touching, and a little shattering. Any year I chose would show the same mettle, the same frailties stamping me at eleven and twelve.” Read more Our years are so implicated in one another that the least important is important enough. As he writes, “ny twelve months could stand for the whole. In lyrical, translucent prose, he thoughtfully extends the story of twelve months into the years before and after, painting a portrait of the artist not simply as a young man, but across his whole life. Looking back on the love and tension within his family, the childhood friendships that lasted and those that didn’t, his memories of summer camp and family trips, he reflects upon the outsized impact our larger American story had on his own.īenjamin Taylor is one of the most talented writers working today. From there Taylor traces a path through the next twelve months, recalling the tumult as he saw everything he had once considered stable begin to grow more complex. ![]() Only a few hours later, Taylor’s teacher called the class in from recess and, through tears, told them of the president’s assassination. Kennedy’s speech in front of the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth on November 22, 1963, he was greeted by, among others, an 11-year-old Benjamin Taylor and his mother waiting to shake his hand. An elegantly written book, erudite, perceptive and at times painfully candid.”-Moira Hodgson, Wall Street JournalĪfter John F. “A marvel of a book-elegant, touching, singular.” -Mary Karr Winner of the LA Times Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, and a New York Times Editor's Choice. The award-winning memoir of one tumultuous year of boyhood in Fort Worth, Texas, opening with a handshake with JFK, and recalling the changes and revelations of the months that followed.
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