Overview
āStraightās memoir is a lyric social history of her multiracial clan in Riverside that explores the bonds of love and survival that bind them, with a particular emphasis on the womenās stories . . . The aftereffect of all these disparate stories juxtaposed in a single epic is remarkable. Its resonance lingers for days after reading.ā āSan Francisco Chronicle
In the Country of Women is a valuable social history and a personal narrative that reads like a love song to America and indomitable women. In inland Southern California, near the desert and the Mexican border, Susan Straight, a selfāproclaimed book nerd, and Dwayne Sims, an African American basketball player, started dating in high school. After college, they married and drove to Amherst, Massachusetts, where Straight met her teacher and mentor, James Baldwin, who encouraged her to write. Once back in Riverside, at driveway barbecues and fish fries with the large, closeāknit Sims family, Straightāand eventually her three daughtersāheard for decades the stories of Dwayneās female ancestors. Some women escaped violence in postāslavery Tennessee, some escaped murder in Jim Crow Mississippi, and some fled abusive men. Straightās motherāinālaw, Alberta Sims, is the descendant at the heart of this memoir. Susanās family, too, reflects the hardship and resilience of women pushing onwardāfrom Switzerland, Canada, and the Colorado Rockies to California.
A Pakistani word, biraderi, is one Straight uses to define a complex system of kinship and clanāthose who become your family. An entire community helped raise her daughters. Of her three girls, now grown and working in museums and the entertainment industry, Straight writes, āThe daughters of our ancestors carry in their blood at least three continents. We are not about borders. We are about love and survival.ā
āCertain books give off the sense that you wonāt want them to end, so splendid the writing, so lyrical the stories. Such is the case with Southern California novelist Susan Straightās new memoir, In the Country of Women . . . Her vibrant pages are filled with people of churnedātogether blood culled from scattered immigrants and native peoples, indomitable women and their babies. Yet they never succumb . . . Straight gives us permission to remember what went before with passion and attachment.ā āāLos Angeles Times
This book title, In the Country of Women (A Memoir), ISBN: 9781646220205, by Susan Straight, published by Catapult (August 25, 2020) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
Unlike Amazon and other retailers who may also offer In the Country of Women (A Memoir) books on their website, we specialize in large quantities and provide personal service, from trusted, experienced, friendly people in Portland, Oregon. We offer a Price Match Guarantee, and QuickQuote form, to make purchasing quick and easy.
Prefer to work with a human being when you order In the Country of Women (A Memoir) books in bulk? Our Book Specialists are standing by Monday-Friday 8-5 PST, ready to help!