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dreesreads's review against another edition
5.0
I saw Susan Straight on a panel at the LA Times Festival of Books, shortly before this book was released. It has been on my radar ever since, though I have not read any of her other books. I found it on Hoopla (accidentally), and immediately checked it out.
This book is a love letter to her 3 adult daughters. It is history, biography, memoir, autobiography, family history. In particular she looks at all of the women who have led to their existing--her own Swiss-immigrant mother, who ran from a marriage to a local pig farmer arranged by her own stepmother, eager to get her out of the house. Her mother's mother, who died young. That stepmother, who did not like her stepchildren, but whose own children and nieces/nephews are happy to host their families and do consider them all family. Her high-school-sweetheart ex-husband's mother Alberta, a black woman from the south, and her many sisters and aunts and cousins. The events that led all of these women to Riverside, California, where they all ended up living in a 6-block area that Straight still lives in today.
The men are here too, but often they were difficult or died young or chose a second wife over their own children. Or they themselves fled a steparent when young, starting over with no family nearby. And many families had large families with more girls than boys, so those girls stuck together always, raising each others' children or providing shelter as needed.
Straight tells a fabulous story. Food, place, family. Fear, racial discrimination, police actions, friends that become family. Visiting her step-grandmother's family in Switzerland. Growing up poor, living in Riverside when a/c wasn't a thing, working in fields or factories. Loving to read and write and learn. It's all here, and it is all wonderful.
This book is a love letter to her 3 adult daughters. It is history, biography, memoir, autobiography, family history. In particular she looks at all of the women who have led to their existing--her own Swiss-immigrant mother, who ran from a marriage to a local pig farmer arranged by her own stepmother, eager to get her out of the house. Her mother's mother, who died young. That stepmother, who did not like her stepchildren, but whose own children and nieces/nephews are happy to host their families and do consider them all family. Her high-school-sweetheart ex-husband's mother Alberta, a black woman from the south, and her many sisters and aunts and cousins. The events that led all of these women to Riverside, California, where they all ended up living in a 6-block area that Straight still lives in today.
The men are here too, but often they were difficult or died young or chose a second wife over their own children. Or they themselves fled a steparent when young, starting over with no family nearby. And many families had large families with more girls than boys, so those girls stuck together always, raising each others' children or providing shelter as needed.
Straight tells a fabulous story. Food, place, family. Fear, racial discrimination, police actions, friends that become family. Visiting her step-grandmother's family in Switzerland. Growing up poor, living in Riverside when a/c wasn't a thing, working in fields or factories. Loving to read and write and learn. It's all here, and it is all wonderful.
hollyhandal's review against another edition
3.0
It was a little slow-moving in places, but I enjoyed it for the most part. I liked how she wove together history, ancestry, and her own personal memoir. I liked it, but also found myself at times hoping I could finish it quickly to go on to something else.
rachelmansmckenny's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this memoir. How the choices of former generations helped the author’s daughters be where and who they are today.
steph_ine's review against another edition
4.0
A stunning personal and family history that transverses borders and racial lines. While refusing to turn a blind eye to the racist, misogynistic, and violent history and present of the United States, Straight articulates a narrative that celebrates the quite and overlooked accomplishments of women.
abslax's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
4.5
lizzielightfoot's review against another edition
3.0
Susan Straight is obviously a good writer, but I guess she’s just not a writer for me. I found this choppy and bratty. “Look at me my daughters are getting PhDs” “Oooh, I’m the most popular mom.” I think she could have written without all of that. Also the choice of writing to her daughters and then telling them what they did was weird.
Again, maybe it was me but I also found it hard to follow the ancestors. By 2/3 of the way through I just gave up. I’d gotten the point by then. I also gave up on the last 60 pages and just skimmed the end.
Straight has had an interesting life, but this was not the book for me.
Again, maybe it was me but I also found it hard to follow the ancestors. By 2/3 of the way through I just gave up. I’d gotten the point by then. I also gave up on the last 60 pages and just skimmed the end.
Straight has had an interesting life, but this was not the book for me.
analis's review against another edition
5.0
Highly recommend this as an audiobook- one of my favorite memoirs of all time.
pattydsf's review against another edition
4.0
”Our women were not in history class, or film or the literature of the ‘canon.’ Our women survived the men who survived the cannons of war, and those were hard men. We hung out with hard men. Weak men. Good men. We married them. We got the babies. The violence. The guns. More babies. The laundry. The pots. Dancing. The pigs. The barter – sex and beds and sheets. The chickens. The bread.
We kept the nation alive.
The women who came before you, my daughters, were legends. Their flights lasted decades, treks that covered America, after they arrived here from the continents of Africa and Europe and married into the indigenous peoples of this continent…”
I don’t know what got me interested in this memoir. I remember some of Straight’s novels. They always looked interesting, but there are always too many books. For whatever reason this book found me, I am profoundly grateful. This is a world that only Straight could take me to, I could have never gotten here on my own.
Straight married a young man from her neighborhood soon after high school. What she didn’t know was she was marrying into a clan of fantastic women who loved hard and survived much. Fortunately for Straight’s three daughters and her readers, Straight paid close attention to the storied of her new family. Not only did she listen, but she did research on her own to put the pieces together. Then she wrote it all down for her daughters.
How Straight got from writing a family history for her children to sharing that story with the rest of the world, I don’t know. However, I am so glad I got to meet this amazing group of matriarchs. This book is wonderful, well-told and an adventure that has to be true – no one could make this all up. Thank you Straight and the Sims family for sharing.
We kept the nation alive.
The women who came before you, my daughters, were legends. Their flights lasted decades, treks that covered America, after they arrived here from the continents of Africa and Europe and married into the indigenous peoples of this continent…”
I don’t know what got me interested in this memoir. I remember some of Straight’s novels. They always looked interesting, but there are always too many books. For whatever reason this book found me, I am profoundly grateful. This is a world that only Straight could take me to, I could have never gotten here on my own.
Straight married a young man from her neighborhood soon after high school. What she didn’t know was she was marrying into a clan of fantastic women who loved hard and survived much. Fortunately for Straight’s three daughters and her readers, Straight paid close attention to the storied of her new family. Not only did she listen, but she did research on her own to put the pieces together. Then she wrote it all down for her daughters.
How Straight got from writing a family history for her children to sharing that story with the rest of the world, I don’t know. However, I am so glad I got to meet this amazing group of matriarchs. This book is wonderful, well-told and an adventure that has to be true – no one could make this all up. Thank you Straight and the Sims family for sharing.
rachel_from_avid_bookshop's review against another edition
5.0
Susan Straight's memoir traces the immigration and history of the women who came before her three daughters. A moving tribute to ancestors, IN THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN is a book about resilience and love that beautifully celebrates the American immigrant story. This book touched me deeply.
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