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Graceland, at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South
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About This Book
Winner of the 2022 Southern Book Prize Winner of the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay An Indie Next Selection for September 2021 A Book Marks Best Reviewed Essay Collection of 2021 A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of 2021 A Country Living Best Book of Fall 2022 A Garden & Gun Recommended Read for Fall 2021 A Book Marks Best Reviewed Book of September 2021 From the author of the bestselling #ReadWithJenna/ TODAY Show book club pick Late A Natural History of Love and Loss For the past four years, Margaret Renkl's columns have offered readers of The New York Times a weekly dose of natural beauty, human decency, and persistent hope from her home in Nashville. Now more than sixty of those pieces have been brought together in this sparkling new collection. "People have often asked me how it feels to be the 'voice of the South,'" writes Renkl in her introduction. "But I'm not the voice of the South, and no one else is, either." There are many Souths—red and blue, rural and urban, mountain and coast, Black and white and brown—and no one writer could possibly represent all of them. In Graceland, At Last , Renkl writes instead from her own experience about the complexities of her homeland, demonstrating along the way how much more there is to this tangled region than many people understand. In a patchwork quilt of personal and reported essays, Renkl also highlights some other voices of the South, people who are fighting for a better future for the region. A group of teenagers who organized a youth march for Black Lives Matter. An urban shepherd whose sheep remove invasive vegetation. Church parishioners sheltering the homeless. Throughout, readers will find the generosity of spirit and deep attention to the world, human and nonhuman, that keep readers returning to her columns each Monday morning. From a writer who "makes one of all the world's beings" (NPR), Graceland, At Last is a book full of gifts for Southerners and non-Southerners alike.
Reviews
"Any initial sense of emotional whiplash faded as as I proceeded across the six sections and realized that the book is largely organized around one concept, that of fair and loving treatment for all — regardless of race, class, sex, gender or species ..."
"Whether extolling the wonders of a rattlesnake or lamenting Southern Christians' support of oppressive policies, Renkl engages with her home region's beauty and complexity."
"As she shows, that land is in peril ..."
"I keep this book nearby to revisit the humanity and hope in its pages."
"This wounded condition, a legacy of the South's fraught history, seems an analog of sorts for America's current national mood."
"Margaret Renkl is both unfailingly honest and deeply empathetic in creating the vivid portrait of her home region that emerges organically from these intensely personal and well-informed essays."
"Renkl's voice is calm, steady, and sometimes surprising."
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