Ava's Man

by Rick Bragg

Book Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - With the same emotional generosity and effortlessly compelling storytelling that made All Over But the Shoutin' a beloved bestseller, Rick Bragg continues his personal history of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375724443
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 259 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.6" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

THE STORY OF A MAN - MAGNIFICENTLY TOLD

Few can evoke an accurate image of the Deep South. Pulitzer Prize-winner Rick Bragg (All Over But The Shoutin') does more than evoke it, he paints it in bold Mondrian-like brush strokes and chiaroscuro. The time and place come alive before our delighted eyes. "Ava's Man" is a very personal history, it's the story of Bragg's mother's childhood in the dirt poor Appalachian foothills during the Depression, and it's a tribute to her father, Charlie Bondrun, the grandfather Bragg knows only through stories and reminiscences. Of this man the author writes, ".....if he ever was good at one thing on this earth, it was being a daddy." Charlie, the father of seven always hungry children, moved his family 29 times during the depression. He worked wherever he could - sometimes for pay, at other times for a side of bacon or a basket of fruit. The doctor who delivered his fourth daughter, Bragg's mother, was paid with a bottle of whiskey. Charlie was not an educated man. His wife, Ava, read the paper to him every day so he would be informed. But, he was a clever man - could make a boat out of car hoods, and he played the banjo, and he could dance. Most importantly, despite the hardships, the deprivation, he knew how to make his family know they were loved. This is Ava's story, Charlie's story, and the story of a time in our history, magnificently told.

Another Work of Art!

I fell in love with Rick Bragg's writing in All Over but the Shoutin' and didn't think he could ever surpass it. I was very wrong. I started Ava's Man yesterday afternoon and didn't stop till I was finished. With the story of his mother in Shoutin I learned how it was to grow up in the south with his mother, 3 brothers and an alcoholic father who was never around. I wondered at the time where his mother got her backbone from and in Ava's Man I found out. His maternal grandfather, Charles Bundrum, was a true man of the south. He raised 7 children during the depression with little or no money and he raised them all solid. He had to move his family 21 times to keep one step ahead of poverty. He worked where ever there was work and he made moonshine. He lived his life as a man and loved his family. Charles could have been an angry man but , he wasn't. He was a legend in his own time and I am so glad that Mr Bragg took the time to tell his story. This is a great piece of southeren literature with almost lyrical prose that will be very hard to forget.

BEST YET BY BRAGG

I'm a fan of literary journalism who got her hands on an advance copy of AVA'S MAN, and let me tell you, it doesn't disappoint. Told in the same lyrical, easy-going prose as ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTING, this tribute to Bragg's grandfather is like a history lesson of life in the true South at the first half of this century. As a southerner, I've almost given up on southern writers, who produce a life that neither I nor my parents even recognize, but about three pages into this book, I told my husband: "This is the real thing." With no trace of sentimentality and no glorification of violence, Bragg tells a story so honest and unvarnished that it could really be any of our grandfathers. In fact, half way through I became convinced we were long-lost cousins, so close and personal were his stories, and predict that when the book arrives in the stores in August, that will the universal reaction. In a time in our history when all that is southern seems to be slipping away, Rick Bragg relights an old flame. We're lucky to have him.

Reading Doesn?t Get Much Better

And if reading does indeed improve there is a high probability that Rick Bragg will write it. His first book, "All Over But The Shoutin", was a remarkable book and was recognized as such. And when a group of his stories were collected for, "Somebody Told Me", it contained shorter works that can stand with any that have appeared, whether fiction or non-fiction. I don't understand why this new work, "Ava's Man" is touted as a continuation of his first book. It is true the work expands on the history of his Family, but it is more of a prequel, exploring his Grandfather, Rick's Mother, and her Sisters. The distinction is important, for if you are expecting part two of Shoutin, which is not what you will get.I want to be clear; I am not criticizing this book. There is no one else writing today that I enjoy reading more. This new work is different, and the reasons are clear, the Author almost states as much in his comments.In his previous work he has written either about his own experiences from a child to the writer he is today, or he was writing his first hand accounts of events as he experienced them. In, "Ava's Man", he is relating a story of a man he never knew as told, by among others, his Mother and his Aunts. The result of his collecting and relating the stories of others requires he be faithful to what they share. This same requirement left him little space to write prose that is totally unique and his own. There were bits of the book where he would introduce an idea, or summarize a lifestyle or a manner of speaking, and the writing was pure Rick Bragg Poetry. But this was not the rule.For me the following type of sentence is what makes Rick Bragg stand alone, "This is a place where grandmothers hold babies on their laps under the stars and whisper that the lights in the sky are holes in the floor of heaven". Call it prose, poetry or music; it is amazing use of the language.He said that this book was requested by people who felt he left out his Mother's story. Readers wanted to know where this remarkable woman was from, and who were the Parents that brought her along. Mr. Bragg even states that this is "their" book, the result of people stopping him in Airports and book signings and telling him he shortchanged his Mama.The previous two books were both works that I wished there were more than 5 stars to express the talent of this man. This book too is excellent, and well beyond what most writers will ever approach. It also is different, not flawed or weak, just different. Individual readers will decide whether this shade of Rick Bragg is one they like better or less.I hope he is working on a dozen new books.