Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression |
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Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression
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by Mildred Armstrong Kalish
Sales Rank: 7889
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List Price: $22.00
$14.96
At Amazon
on 6-19-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Hard Cover with 304 pages
Published by: BantamEdition: 1st Edition May 29, 2007
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0553804952
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0553804959
Book Dimensions:
8.3 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
Weighs: 9.6 ounces
From Publishers Weekly
Kalish's memoir of her Iowa childhood, set against the backdrop of the Depression, captures a vanished way of traditional living and a specific moment in American history in a story both illuminating and memorable. Kalish lived with her siblings, mother and grandparents-seven in all-both in a town home and, in warmer weather, out on a farm. The lifestyle was frugal in the extreme: "The only things my grandparents spent money on were tea, coffee, sugar, salt, white flour, cloth and kerosene." But in spite of the austere conditions, Kalish's memories are mostly happy ones: keeping the farm and home going, caring for animals, cooking elaborate multi-course meals and washing the large family's laundry once a week, by hand. Here, too, are stories of gossiping in the kitchen, digging a hole to China with the "Big Kids" and making head cheese at butchering time. Kalish skillfully rises above bitterness and sentiment, giving her memoir a clear-eyed narrative voice that puts to fine use a lifetime of careful observation: "Observing the abundance of life around us was just so naturally a part of our days on the farm that it became a habit." Simple, detailed and honest, this is a refreshing and informative read for anyone interested in the struggles of average Americans in the thick of the Great Depression.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Bookmarks Magazine
One of the most endearing qualities of octogenarian Mildred Armstrong Kalishs Little Heathens is that it runs counter to what the memoir, sadly, has too frequently become-self-indulgent, self-promoting gossip. Despite circumstances that could easily have left her embittered, Kalish, a retired English professor, recalls her formative years fondly. Through simple, honest prose punctuated with "her old pagan rhythms" (New York Times Book Review) and a host of memorable examples, Kalish performs her greatest feat, which is to make some of us under eighty just the slightest bit envious-crazy to say, but such is human nature-that we never experienced the Depression-era challenges and triumphs so lovingly recounted.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.
Reader Reviews
This is an entrancing memoir of days now long gone, but vivid in the minds of those who lived them. While I lived on an Iowa farm in western Iowa rather than eastern Iowa, and was a boy, and was about six years younger than the author, this book recalled so much of what it was like that reading it was sn unmitigated delight. The author recognizes "the all-too-human tendency to gloss over the bad and glorify, or at least magnify, the good" when recalling one's childhood, but it sure makes greater reading to read of one's appreciated childhood than it does to read of one who looks back thereon in bitterness. Thus this book beats, e.g., Angela's Ashes by a mile in enjoyable reading.
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Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression
Available from Amazon
Price: $14.96
Updated on 6-19-2008.
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