Ten Circles Upon the Pond
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- USD 9.99
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- USD 9.99
Descripción editorial
A beautifully written collection of essays for anyone who’s ever lived in that unwieldy group called family—a story that takes us from Iowa to the high country of Wyoming and Montana as a woman and her husband search for the perfect place to raise their five daughters and five sons.
Rooted in real-life experience, this unique essay collection of passion, intimacy, work, religion, puberty, love and loss, and the struggle to be steadfast in times of enormous social change reads like a novel—full of lively characters, spirited dialogue, and a landscape that takes you from Iowa to the high country of Wyoming and Montana. As the chapters unfold, one focused on each child, Virginia Tranel and her husband search for the ideal place to raise the five daughters and five sons born to them between 1957 and 1978.
Tranel artfully weaves daily moments with world events as she reflects on how our culture affects our decisions. She offers candid observations on everything from her reproductive choices and feminism's influence on her thinking to sibling rivalries and her family's emotional response when an architect son emails firsthand reports of the horrors of September 11. Whether considering the issues intrinsic to marriage and child-raising, or questioning her own common sense, her insights are always provocative and deeply moving.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Anyone who wonders how parents of multiple children keep track of their kids' names (let alone hobbies, favorite foods and distinguishing characteristics) will be impressed by Tranel's clear memories of raising her family of 10. Each chapter of this honest, occasionally nostalgic memoir is devoted to one child, from the now 46-year-old Daniel all the way down to the youngest, Adrienne, who graduated from college in 2000. Tranel's overextended but always levelheaded musings on the coming of age of her lively children are punctuated with frank discussions of outsiders' reactions to the burgeoning clan. When someone at a poetry workshop asks how many kids she has, Tranel worries, "Admitting the truth is tantamount to strolling into a Sierra Club convention and proclaiming myself a clear-cutter." And when a fellow poet wonders how overseeing a dozen people could leave any time for creative pursuits, Tranel thinks, "I've laid tile and hung wallpaper and hand-churned cream to butter and made prom dresses and curtains and coats and peace and bread; I've packed up every spoon and plate and sock and book in the house and moved more than a dozen times; I've bitten off more than I could chew and kept on chewing; I've been absorbed, frustrated, fed up and happy, but I can't explain myself to this man." Readers who begin the book wondering why the Tranels had so many children may not find a straight answer, but they will finish with a sense that this family finds strength in numbers.