Читать книгу Constructing the Self. Essays on Southern Life-Writing онлайн

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Summer Snow had its impetus in a family loss. On 8 January 2001, my mother died at the age of 86. I started thinking about what I could do to honor her memory. I thought of a family newspaper or some kind of annual family gathering. Then, as I was mulling this over, I started thinking about my mother’s fishing history, and I thought about trying to capture some of the memories I had of her in a series of essays. Then, I thought, why not just produce a memoir in which my mother would play a vital role? That would give me a chance to honor her as well as to record some of the events surrounding my growing up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, attending Stillman College there, and then matriculating to The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. So, I started writing the essays on weekends, and they just seemed to flow from my mind and my pen. Things were going so well that, though I am not Catholic, I decided to give up the occasional glass of wine (which was really no stressful sacrifice) and all desserts (that was a major sacrifice) for Lent. It is amazing what one can accomplish in terms of thinking and writing when the body and mind are free of alcohol and sugar, but especially sugar. I wrote like a fiend between January and June of 2001, and Summer Snow was done. Though it was not published until 2003, the work was complete.