Five Thousand Days Like This One: An American Family History

by Jane Brox and Jane Wong

Book Overview

Amid the turmoil after her father's death-decisions to be made, the future of the family farm to be settled-Jane Brox, using her acclaimed "compassion, honesty, and restraint" (The Boston Globe), begins a search for her family's story. The search soon leads her to the quintessentially American history of New England's Merrimack Valley, its farmers, and the immigrant workers caught up in the industrial textile age.

Jane Brox's first book,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807021075
• ISBN13: 9780807021071
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Uneven, but interesting account

I vascillated between really loving parts of this book, and being annoyed at others. The book discusses the history of the Merrimack Valley in northeastern Massachusetts, weaving in stories about the author's parents' lives there as immigrants from Italy and Lebanon. It also compares descriptions of the area written by Thoreau, and others, in the 19th century.While most of it was fascinating, some aspects of the book bothered me. First, as the book progresses, it becomes evident that it is a collection of prior essays; some portions are repetitive, almost down to the exact language. Second, I felt that the author was trying too hard to be "lyrical." Some of the writing seemed "forced," convoluted, and grammatically awkward, to the point that I had to reread sentences to figure out what she wanted to say. Despite these criticisms, it is an interesting read about an area that has changed so much over the last 150 years.

This is an incredibly powerful and exquisitely written book.

Jane Brox's second book is masterful: a cross between social history and memoir, a book that is devastatingly clear about the future of the family farm and yet without a trace of rancor. Even if, like me, you're a city person, you should READ THIS BOOK for its pervasive, gentle wisdom; for its stunning prose; for everything a book should offer to its reader--access to a beloved world.