24 Books to Pick Up This September
20 of 24
The Distancers: An American Memoir
By Lee Sandlin
224 pages;
Vintage
Most memoirs tell the history of a
person. This one—written by the
lyrical Lee Sandlin—tells the history of
generations of an American family who lived in the downstate Illinois farmhouse
built by his great-great-grandfather. Each summer, he and his many cousins were
sent there to graduate "from a tricycle to a bicycle, and from softball
to hardball"
and to live by the rule that "the
only thing more offensive than asking a personal question is answering one." Spanning the years
from 1850 to 1996, the story follows a cast of eccentric, endearing characters
(some of the best: the boxcar-riding uncle, the beer-brewing great-uncle, the
ever-angry, movie-loving aunt), as well as bewitchingly recreates the
Tom Sawyer-style countryside where "on the clearest days you could see the
glittering dragon tail of the great river." But it's Sandlin's musings on who of
us flounder—and who of us
flourish—under the family
tradition of reticence, that makes the book so poignant.
— Leigh Newman
Published 09/15/2013