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88 reviews for:
Graceland, At Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South
Margaret Renkl
4.2 AVERAGE
88 reviews for:
Graceland, At Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South
Margaret Renkl
4.2 AVERAGE
"The Mississippi Delta
Was shining like a national guitar
I am following the river
Down the highway
Through the cradle of the Civil War
I'm going to Graceland, Graceland
Memphis, Tennessee" - Paul Simon
In "Graceland, at Last," Margaret Renkl writes gushingly about the Mississippi Delta, in a way that makes you believe, like she does, that it's one of the most beautiful places on earth.
She brushes broad literary strokes of landscapes in backwater Alabama towns to coal dusted Virginia mountains and then hones into their details, like the innumerable plants and animals that call the American South home. A good writer like Renkl makes you mourn the loss of yet another Tennessee wildflower you've never seen, and have hope for a threatened songbird that calls home a low country state you've never been.
She's based in Nashville, so of course she also talks of music, and with that also culture, and the complexities that exist in a diverse, multicultural, growing and yet still, red-state Tennessee.
Renkl sees the "cradle of the Civil War," not as a static place that could summed together in a throwaway paragraph in an online publication after Election Day, but a living breathing organism. An organism that's had arrows continuously shot in its flesh for years, and no matter the healing others may apply to it, even more continue to shoot this beast, and themselves, in the foot, and everywhere else in-between.
The thing is, this beast Renkl describes, for all the pain, suffering, ugliness its been inflicted, is also beautiful, hope-filled and most of all, worth saving. For every racist, MAGA spewer who was failed by both the state and the world, there is a person working to counteract both their hate, and their vote.
She writes in one of the final chapters: "Maybe being a Southern writer is only a matter of loving a damaged and damaging place, of loving its flawed and beautiful people, so much that you have to stay there, observing and recording and believing, against all odds, that one day it will finally live up to the promise of its own heart."
When I started reading this book in January I was living in Chicago, almost positive I was moving to Virginia and North Carolina for the summer. I wanted to better understand the places I'd be moving to. It's late Spring now and instead of living near the Shenandoah River and Blue Ridge Mountains, I'm settled between the Wasatch Mountain Range to my right and the Great Salt Lake to my left.
As so many things have changed between these months, for reasons I cannot explain,
there's still some part of me wants to see, Graceland. And more importantly, believe in, Graceland.
Was shining like a national guitar
I am following the river
Down the highway
Through the cradle of the Civil War
I'm going to Graceland, Graceland
Memphis, Tennessee" - Paul Simon
In "Graceland, at Last," Margaret Renkl writes gushingly about the Mississippi Delta, in a way that makes you believe, like she does, that it's one of the most beautiful places on earth.
She brushes broad literary strokes of landscapes in backwater Alabama towns to coal dusted Virginia mountains and then hones into their details, like the innumerable plants and animals that call the American South home. A good writer like Renkl makes you mourn the loss of yet another Tennessee wildflower you've never seen, and have hope for a threatened songbird that calls home a low country state you've never been.
She's based in Nashville, so of course she also talks of music, and with that also culture, and the complexities that exist in a diverse, multicultural, growing and yet still, red-state Tennessee.
Renkl sees the "cradle of the Civil War," not as a static place that could summed together in a throwaway paragraph in an online publication after Election Day, but a living breathing organism. An organism that's had arrows continuously shot in its flesh for years, and no matter the healing others may apply to it, even more continue to shoot this beast, and themselves, in the foot, and everywhere else in-between.
The thing is, this beast Renkl describes, for all the pain, suffering, ugliness its been inflicted, is also beautiful, hope-filled and most of all, worth saving. For every racist, MAGA spewer who was failed by both the state and the world, there is a person working to counteract both their hate, and their vote.
She writes in one of the final chapters: "Maybe being a Southern writer is only a matter of loving a damaged and damaging place, of loving its flawed and beautiful people, so much that you have to stay there, observing and recording and believing, against all odds, that one day it will finally live up to the promise of its own heart."
When I started reading this book in January I was living in Chicago, almost positive I was moving to Virginia and North Carolina for the summer. I wanted to better understand the places I'd be moving to. It's late Spring now and instead of living near the Shenandoah River and Blue Ridge Mountains, I'm settled between the Wasatch Mountain Range to my right and the Great Salt Lake to my left.
As so many things have changed between these months, for reasons I cannot explain,
there's still some part of me wants to see, Graceland. And more importantly, believe in, Graceland.
A perfectly organized collection of Renkl’s New York Times op-ed columns documenting life, nature, and culture from a southern perspective, but for a broad audience. Seamless, smart, and concise writing. I savored this collection, dipping in and out for several weeks. I had the pleasure of meeting her a few years ago at the Southern Festival of Books and she’s just lovely. Reading/supporting my local (Nashville) authors is such a joy.
I really like Renkl's writing, and I enjoy her columns for the NY times. But this particular collection didn't work for me. Perhaps it's my current frame of mind, but I just found these essays too depressing when read as a book.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This book is a collection of previously published short essays about the contradictions of culture and politics in the modern American South. It shouldn't be read all at once, as there is some repetition that would likely become grating if consumed too quickly. However, taken slowly, the strength of this book is its clear insight and characterization of Nashville and surrounding areas. Recommended.
Excellent essay collection. This book helped me to re-assess some of my biases about the South, in part because the author's intelligence, compassion, and sense of humor are so compelling. She wrote a memoir that is now on my to-read list.
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Creating spaces for pollinators. Working to remove invasive species plants. Observations about nature and the human spirit. Essays offering hope for nature and prople.
Margaret Renkl is one of the best columnists probably ever and I will entertain no questions.
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Quite delightful to read when in her town! The number of times I said, "I JUST read an essay about this!" must've driven my traveling companions up a wall.