The Vineyard We Knew
A Recollection of Summers on Martha's Vineyard
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Kevin Parham has spent summers on Martha’s Vineyard for over fifty years. He shares his experiences on the island through a series of vignettes that are very personal, but also universal. They open up to a reader a world that many of them will not know, but one they will still recognize.
The story takes place in the turbulent 1960s—under humble circumstances—when America's social and political landscapes were evolving.
The Vineyard We Knew is almost elegiac in nature, in that it creates a sense of nostalgia, even in a reader who had never been there.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Supported by 33 photographs, Parham, a professional musician, warmly describes the idyllic African-American childhood summers spent with six cousins on Martha's Vineyard, before it became a vacation spot for the rich and powerful. The memoir is a tribute to Parham's grandmother, Carrie White, the family's strong-willed matriarch, who had brought her brood to the picturesque island off Massachusetts since the 1930s, setting up seasonal residence in an old two-bedroom house. Parham details the spirited interaction between his cousins while painting a candid portrait of his hard-working mother and ultra-hip stepfather. His lyrical descriptions of the Vineyard with its bicycling, boats, fishing, clamming, and crabbing and anecdotes of youthful exuberance are peppered with classic tunes, dancing, early love, cheap wine, and house parties. (BookLife)
