Seeking Rapture: A Memoir - Couverture rigide

Harrison, Kathryn

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0007143184 ISBN 13 : 9780007143184

Editeur : Fourth Estate Ltd, 2003

Synopsis

From the bestselling author of ‘The Binding Chair’, this dazzling follow-up to her memoir ‘the Kiss’ explores the bonds of motherhood between four generations.

When Kathryn Harrison was a little girl, her young mother left her in the care of her British grandmother who was raised in Shanghai. To Kathryn, her mother's mother seemed an almost unimaginably powerful figure: an imperious arbiter of good taste and a master storyteller, who, when coaxed, might reveal stories of a magic and vanished world. She jilted an array of suitable men before concluding that she was not quite modern enough to have a baby without a husband. At the age of 43 she finally married, and the fruit of this union, Harrison's mother, was no more interested than she in being bound by convention. An occasional witness to her daughter's growth to adulthood, she would appear sporadically in film-star clothes and urge unwanted glamour on her shy child. Harrison grew up a spectator of the remarkable, striving to comprehend these women and yet find her own way to live.

In this witty, touching memoir, Harrison writes of the ties that bind mothers to their children – and the forces that can drive them apart. She ponders the legacy of storytelling she inherited from her grandmother, and peers into the deep well of family history from which she draws inspiration for her novels. Reconsidering her past as she watches her own children grow, she recalls the thrilling risk of shoplifting; the longing for perfection that resulted in a fierce eating disorder; the thunderous fights that showed how impossible and how necessary it was to leave home. ‘Seeking Rapture’ conveys the aching tenderness Harrison feels toward her children, and her awe of their imaginary worlds that no adult can enter. This powerfully evocative book will awaken readers to sift through their own sense of motherhood, loss and regeneration. In prose that sings, ‘Seeking Rapture’ chronicles the unforgettable episodes that form the drama of domestic life.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Kathryn Harrison is the author of the novels ‘The Binding Chair’, ‘Exposure’, ‘A Thousand Orange Trees’ and ‘Envy’, as well as two volumes of memoirs, ‘The Kiss’ and ‘Seeking Rapture’, all available from Fourth Estate. She lives in New York with her husband, the novelist Colin Harrison, and their children.

À propos de la quatrième de couverture

When Kathryn Harrison was a little girl, her glamorous young mother left her in the care of her British grandmother who was raised in Shanghai.
To Kathryn, her mother's mother seemed almost unimaginably powerful figure: an imperious arbiter of good taste and a master storyteller, who, when coaxed, might reveal stories of a magic and vanished world. She jilted an array of suitable men before concluding that she was not quite modern enough to have a baby without a husband. Her daughter, Harrison's mother, was no more interested than she in being bound by convention. Harrison grew up a spectator of the remarkable, striving to comprehend these women and yet find her own way to live.

In this witty, touching memoir, Harrison writes of the ties that bond mothers to their children – and the forces that can drive them apart. She ponders the legacy of storytelling she inherited from her grandmother, and peers into the deep well of family history from which she draws inspiration for her novels. 'Seeking Rapture' conveys the aching tenderness Harrison feels towards her own children, and her awe of their imaginary worlds that no adult can enter. This powerfully evocative book will awaken readers to sift through their own sense of motherhood, loss and regeneration. In prose that sings, 'Seeking Rapture' chronicles the unforgettable episodes that form the drama of domestic life.

On Harrison's first memoir, 'The Kiss':

"One of the most startling books you are ever likely to read."
GILL HORNBY, 'Observer'

"I couldn't stop reading this. I'll never stop remembering it."
MARK KARR, author of 'The Liar's Club'

"An unforgettable tale, a work of searing honesty, of immaculate literature."
KATE FIGES, 'Independent on Sunday'

"Remarkable for its candour, but also for its elegance, its sense of morality and its generosity of spirit."
ELIZA CHARLTON, 'Sunday Telegraph'

"Harrison writes like an angel."
PENNY PERRICK, 'The Times'

"Remarkable moving."
PENELOPE MORTIMER, 'Daily Telegraph'

"Heartfelt, extraordinary…This is a book that, once read, refuses to go away."
'Marie Claire'

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Fourth Estate Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2003
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0007143184
• ISBN 13: 9780007143184
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 224
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible