From Our House

9780452282544

0452282543

The year Lee Martin was born, his father lost both his hands in a farming accident. From Our House tells the story of a young mans growing up in the aftermath of this tragedy. "All our lives have private truths," Martin writes, "and the truth about my father was that after his accident he brought a deep & abiding rage into our home." Yet Martin's mother, Beulah, never stopped hoping that God would smile on her family again. In this moving, uniquely American memoir, Lee Martin reveals how his family finally found salvation & the faith that would help to heal them all. In evocative, luminous language, he captures the beauty & the harsh realities of life in the rural Midwest. And he talks about the rage--as well as the profound love--he felt toward his embittered, often violent father, & a legacy of shame that haunts him still. Reminiscent of Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life & imbued with Martin's compassion & humanity, this story of one family's journey toward reconciliation & redemption is "a moving memoir that portrays the complexities that exist in many American families--equal parts frustration, anger, yearning, & tenacious familial love" (USA Today). "A lyrical, finely wrought memoir of grief, pain, & joy." --Chicago Tribune.