The Book of Mamie

by Duff Brenna

Book Overview

First paperback printing of author's first novel, winner of 1989 AWP Novel Award, a great big, awe-inspiring, wonder-inspired story about American people in the heartlands. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087745244X
• ISBN13: 9780877452447
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: University of Iowa Press
• Length: 338 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Lovable & Unforgettable

A great adventure story about a girl who is the size of a linebacker and a boy who helps her run away. She is Mamie Beaver. He is Christian Foggy. Together they roam the countryside and towns of northern Wisconsin, staying a step ahead of Mamie's abusive father and the law. Brenna's picaresque tale carries the reader along on a sea of writing that is both simple and complex. The book brings to mind HUCKLEBERRY FINN & OF MICE AND MEN and the characters in it are just as lovable and unforgettable as Huck and Jim or Lennie and George. The book is a fast read and the reader doesn't want it to end. It makes you laugh and cry and laugh some more. The descriptions of Wisconsin are spot on and reveal a writer who is at the height of his powers and knows his territory. Among other things, this is a book about the power of movies. Mamie is a creation for the ages, part earth-mother, part genius who has uncanny abilities as a mimic. She becomes, in effect, the greatest actress who ever lived. Her chameleon voice and personality become known throughout Wisconsin and her fame as an actress seems destined to take her to New York or Hollywood. But her father also hears about her and he shows up in the town where she is performing and all hell breaks loose. THE BOOK OF MAMIE is the story of one person's struggle to find her place in the world and overcome the traumas of her childhood. It is a vigorous story about a wonderfully gifted girl and her awed companion, who uncovers her genius and falls madly in love with her. THE BOOK OF MAMIE a masterpiece and fully deserving of the AWP Award it won back in 1988. National Book Award winner Andrea Barrett calls it a masterpiece and she does not exaggerate a bit. How this wonderful novel can be out of print is a baffling mystery to me. It is definitely worth searching for. I've loaned my copy out several times and gotten nothing but raves from the friends who borrowed it.

Lovable & Unforgettable

Mamie Beaver & Christian Foggy hook up in northern Wisconsin when Christian takes Mamie's father to her hiding place after learning there is a reward for finding her. She has run away from home and at first it looks like Christian is going to betray her simply because he is greedy, but when he sees how her father treats her, he helps her escape and the two of them manage to stay a step ahead of the menacing father and the law as they roam the farm country and towns of WI. One wild and wonderful adventure follows another and there is never a dull moment. Brenna's picaresque story seems to be influenced by Mark Twain's HUCKLEBERRY FINN and the characters that enter the lives of Mamie and Christian are every bit as memorable and fascinating. At times horrible and sad things happen and you'll find yourself in tears, at other times the book is so funny you'll laugh out loud. Brenna is a masterful writer. a born storyteller and THE BOOK OF MAMIE is truly the masterpiece that Andrea Barrett called it when she picked it for the AWP Award. I wanted the book to go on and on and I turned the final page reluctantly. I will never forget Mamie or Christian, a pair as captivating as Huck and Jim or Steinbeck's Lennie and George. Why THE BOOK OF MAMIE has been allowed to go out of print and is not available in paperback is a mystery to everyone I've talked to who has read it(and there are many of us out here). It is very strange that the publishing world hasn't been able to recognize what a goldmine it has in Brenna's lovable and unforgettable book.

Go Along for the Ride...

...with the magical Mamie Beaver and Christian. You will laugh out loud and be drawn into an adventure as wild and unlikely as any found in the pages of classic Americana. Brenna is masterful. You'll find yourself re-reading whole paragraphs just to savor the sound of the words and to linger with the delicious notions they provoke. This first book of fiction won the 1988 Associated Writing Programs Novel Award for good reason. The reader's in very capable hands from page one, as the details of Mamie's and Christian's journey unfold with equal measures of wisdom and hilarity. By page 338 you'll be a true believer that in life it's not the destination, it's the journey. Out of print but worth tracking down.