All over but the Shoutin'

If you have not lived part of this book you won't get it. If your hardest moment in life was not making the team or getting dumped by a girl then you won't understand Rick's story. But if you've been there, espicially if you've been there and you grew up in the South, then this book will resonate with you in deep and meaningful ways that won't make much good logical sense. After you have your first good throat aching cry you'll experience a measure of the healing that All Over But The Shout'in can bring to a life that started hard.

More than a book. A story told with honesty. A witness. A testimony that speak to the soul.

I read this book after loving AVA'S MAN. I was less enthralled with ALL OVER, which was written first. From reviews, I expected it to be a paean to his momma. That it was, early on and again at the end. But I couldn't help thinking that for a woman to sacrifice so much for her children is not so exceptional--most of us sacrifice more than our children will ever know--and that he was perhaps too attached to her. His lack of any real emotional connection to any of his many "girlfriends" made me think that he needed to mature and to depend less on his attachment to his momma. Like other reviewers, I was less interested in his climb to the Pulitzer, but I adjusted to the switch of focus. It turned into an autobiography, and his many "clips" from stories that he wrote were very interesting. Overall, I think the second half is just not as gripping as the first and the switch was somewhat jarring.

I read this book when it first came out and had an occasion to repurchase it recently for a book club discussion. As I live now in the South and have followed his career in the last couple of years; I find his writing both stimulating and interesting. The group found his descriptions of his Southern long suffering Mother very realistic. Have ordered his new book and look forward to reading it as well.

Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice
Inspired writing. Pulitzer Prize winning, New York Times reporter, Rick Bragg, tells the story of growing up poor white trash in Alabama. Seldom have I read more compassionate, truthful, heartfelt words. Mr. Bragg's love for his family, his mother and his country blasts through. Just as truthful is his depiction of the alcoholic father who deserted his family and the crushing effect of their subsequent poverty. Simple. Beautiful. Unforgettable. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

This 1997 memoir is one of the best books I have ever read (and I've read a lot of books over the years). I heard someone once describe this as the southern version of Angela's Ashes (and I guess that's a pretty apt description). Born dirt-poor in Alabama, Rick Bragg seemed headed towards a dead-end job or maybe jail. Instead, he became a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. This story is about Bragg's hard-drinking father and other family members, but in particular it is a tribute to his mother who went 18 years without a new dress so her sons could have school clothes and worked herself to the bone so her children wouldn't have to live on welfare. Rick has written several good books "Somebody Told Me" (a collection of his newspaper stories), "Ava's Man (a story about Rick's grandfather), and "I am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story", but the emotional generosity and compelling storytelling of this one makes it my favorite. I'm from Alabama too. I know Rick's people. His people are my people. I was lucky enough to see Rick at the Southern Kentucky Book Festival a couple of years ago and get him to sign a copy of this book for me and it is one of my treasured possessions (that and the picture my son took of us together). Do yourself a favor. Read this book.