{"product_id":"when-we-were-the-kennedys-a-memoir-from-mexico-maine-isbn-9780544002326","title":"When We Were The Kennedys: A Memoir from Mexico, Maine","description":"Winner of the 2012 Sarton Memoir Award\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Every few years, a memoir comes along that revitalizes the form…With generous, precise, and unsentimental prose, Monica Wood brilliantly achieves this . . . \u003cem\u003eWhen We Were the Kennedys\u003c\/em\u003e is a deeply moving gem!”—Andre Dubus III, author of \u003cem\u003eHouse of Sand and Fog\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eTownie\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMexico, Maine, 1963: The Wood family is much like its close, Catholic, immigrant neighbors, all dependent on the fathers’ wages from the Oxford Paper Company. But when Dad suddenly dies on his way to work, Mum and the four deeply connected Wood girls are set adrift. \u003cem\u003eWhen We Were the Kennedys\u003c\/em\u003e is the story of how a family, a town, and then a nation mourns and finds the strength to move on. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“On her own terms, wry and empathetic, Wood locates the melodies in the aftershock of sudden loss.”—\u003cem\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] marvel of storytelling, layered and rich. It is, by turns, a chronicle of the renowned paper mill that was both pride and poison to several generations of a town; a tribute to the ethnic stew of immigrant families that grew and prospered there; and an account of one family’s grief, love, and resilience.”—\u003cem\u003eMaine Sunday Telegram \u003c\/em\u003e | \u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eWhen We Were the Kennedys\u003c\/i\u003e is a sharp, stunning portrait of a family’s grief and healing, and it also offers a refreshing lens through which to view the JFK tragedy, as his family’s loss helps the Woods feel less adrift in their own sea of anguish...Wood writes beautifully.\" —\u003ci\u003eWashingtonian\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e  \"Wood movingly renders her childhood in Mexico, Maine, and her large Catholic family's fight to survive after her father's sudden death. It's a pleasure to linger with her elegant prose, keen eye, and grace of thought.\"—\u003ci\u003eReader's Digest\u003c\/i\u003e  “The book is a shining example of everything a memoir should be.” —\u003ci\u003eU.S. Catholic\u003c\/i\u003e  \"This is a beautifully composed snapshot of how a family, a town—and, later, a country—grieves and goes on...The bonds between family members, neighbors, and coworkers, as well as men and their professions, are all explored here with sensitivity and a sweetness that isn’t saccharine.\" —\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"Braiding her own story of mourning together with the heartbreak all around her, Wood has written a tender memoir of a very different time.\" —\u003ci\u003eO, the Oprah Magazine \u003c\/i\u003e  \"Every few years, a memoir comes along that revitalizes the form, that takes us by the hand and leads us into the dream world of our collective past from which we emerge more wholly ourselves. With generous, precise, and unsentimental prose, Monica Wood brilliantly achieves this, bringing back to life the rural paper mill town of not only her youth but America's, too, its bumbling, hard-working, often violent, yet mostly good-hearted lurch forward into the 21st century. \u003ci\u003eWhen We Were the Kennedys\u003c\/i\u003e is a deeply moving gem!\"—Andre Dubus III, author of \u003ci\u003eHouse of Sand and Fog\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTownie\u003c\/i\u003e   \"This is an extraordinarily moving book, so carefully and artfully realized, about loss and life and love.　 Monica Wood displays all her superb novelistic skills in this breathtaking, evocative new memoir.　 Wow.\"—Ken Burns, filmmaker  \"Monica Wood has written a gorgeous, gripping memoir. I don't know that I've ever pulled so hard for a family. When We Were the Kennedys captures a shimmering mill-town world on the edge of oblivion, in a voice that brims with hope, feeling, and wonder. The book humbles and soars.\"—Mike Paterniti, author of \u003ci\u003eDriving Mr. Albert \u003c\/i\u003e “Monica Wood is a stunning writer and \u003ci\u003eWhen We Were the Kennedys\u003c\/i\u003e a luminous and resonant achievement. If I were standing beside you, I would press this book into your hands.”—Lily King, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Pleasing Hour\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eFather of the Rain\u003c\/i\u003e Wood’s book...goes much beyond the story of her family’s grief. The book is a meditation on time... It’s also a record of a vanished way of life... it avoids sentimentalizing small-town life... By bringing such a town to life, with all its complexities and imperfections, it’s to Monica Wood’s great credit that she goes a long way to answering these questions. \u003cb\u003eThe New Yorker online\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\"In her intimate but expansive memoir, Monica Wood explores not only her family's grief but also the national end of innocence. Braiding her own story of mourning together with the heartbreak all around her, Wood has written a tender memoir of a very different time.\" \u003cb\u003e--Oprah Magazine \u003c\/b\u003e \"On her own terms, wry and empathetic, Wood locates the melodies in the aftershock of sudden loss...That a memory piece as pacific and unassuming as \u003ci\u003eWhen We Were the Kennedys\u003c\/i\u003e should be allowed a seat in the hothouse society of tell-alls is a tribute to the welcoming sensibility of its author and the knowing faith of her publisher. \" \u003cb\u003eBoston Globe \u003c\/b\u003e \"It's a pleasure to linger with her elegant prose, keen eye, and grace of thought.\" \u003cb\u003e--Reader's Digest \"Best of America\" issue  \u003c\/b\u003e\"Wood's gorgeously wrought new book...is a sharp, stunning portrait of a family's grief and healing, and it also offer a refreshing lens through which to view the JFK tragedy, as his family's loss helps the Woods feel less adrift in their own sea of anguish.\" \u003cb\u003e--The Washingtonian \"Best of Washington\" issue \u003c\/b\u003e \"Extraordinary, powerful and moving...This heart-wrenching, emotional, sometimes funny, oftentimes astonishing, and always compelling story is far better than the best novel...You will find yourself pausing, rereading entire paragraphs and thinking about what you've read...Read it and weep. Read it and wonder. Read it and rejoice. \u003cb\u003eKennebec Journal\/Waterville (Maine) Morning Sentinel \u003c\/b\u003e \"This is an extraordinarily moving book, so carefully and artfully realized...Monica Wood displays all her superb novelistic skills in this breathtaking, evocative new memoir. Wow.\" \u003cb\u003e—Ken Burns, filmmaker \u003c\/b\u003e \"A tender, plaintive...genuinely compelling depiction of family grief...a bittersweet, end-of-innocence family drama.\" --\u003cb\u003eKirkus  \u003c\/b\u003e \"My great book of the summer...It’s a terrific book, telling the story of Wood's family after the sudden death of her father when she was only nine. That’s sad, of course, but the book isn’t about being sad, it’s about being a family. It’s also about an era—the year was 1963—and draws a parallel between Wood's story and the national loss of President Kennedy.\" \u003cb\u003eBill Roorbach in Orion Magazine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mariner Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44889998852325,"sku":"NP9780544002326","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780544002326.jpg?v=1730232346","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/when-we-were-the-kennedys-a-memoir-from-mexico-maine-isbn-9780544002326","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}