I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR’s National Story Project

Details

ISBN-10: 0312421001
ISBN-13: 9780312421007
Publisher: Picador USA
Publish Date: 09/07/2002
Dimensions: 8.20" L, 5.40" W, 0.80" H

I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR’s National Story Project

Introduction by:Paul Auster
Editor: Paul Auster

Paperback

Price: $30.00

Overview

One of America’s foremost writers collects the best stories submitted to NPR’s popular monthly show–and illuminates the powerful role storytelling plays in all our lives.

When Paul Auster and NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered introduced The National Story Project, the response was overwhelming. Not only was the monthly show a critical success, but the volume of submissions was astounding. Letters, emails, faxes poured in on a daily basis- more than 4,000 of them by the time the project celebrated its first birthday. Everyone, it seemed, had a story to tell.

I Thought My Father Was God gathers 180 of these personal, true-life accounts in a single, powerful volume. They come from people of all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life. Half of the contributors are men; half are women. They live in cities, suburbs, and rural areas, and they come from 42 different states. Most of the stories are short, vivid bits of narrative, combining the ordinary and the extraordinary, and most describe a single incident in the writer’s life. Some are funny, some are mysterious, like the story of a woman who watched a white chicken walk purposefully down a street in Portland, Oregon, hop up some porch steps, knock on the door–and calmly enter the house. Many involve the closing of a loop, like the one about the woman who lost her mother’s ashes in a burglary and recovered them five years later from the mortuary of a local church.

Hilarious blunders, wrenching coincidences, brushes with death, miraculous encounters, improbable ironies, premonitions, sorrows, pains, dreams-this singular collection encompasses an extraordinary range of settings, time periods, and subjects. A testament to the important role storytelling plays in all our lives, I Thought My Father Was God offers a rare glimpse into the American soul.

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Reviews

"A powerful book, one in which strangers share with you their darkest secrets, their happiest memories, their fears, their regrets. To read these essays is to look into hearts, to see life from other viewpoints, to live vicariously." –The Boston Globe

"Unforgettable testimonials of human resilience. Moving and amusing dispatches from across America." –Us Weekly (starred review)

"Human foibles and frailties, laughter and tears...We are all hearing–and telling–stories all the time, especially now, in these days when life itself seems so fragile and precious. But Paul Auster's wonderful efforts, choosing these fine stories, have given us a timely and invaluable reminder of what it means to listen–to really listen–to America talking." –The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)

"Finally, a bathroom book worthy of Pulitzer consideration: the one-to-three-page stories gathered in this astonishing, addictive collection are absolute gems." –Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"It is difficult to think of another book published this year, and probably any book to be published next year, that is so simple and so obvious, so excellent in intention and so elegant in its execution, and which displays such wisdom and such knowledge of human life in all its varieties. It is also difficult to think of a book that is so stark a reminder that human experience can be horrid and utterly unbelievable, and which therefore answers so precisely to our current needs and circumstances." –The Guardian (UK)

"As this collection ably proves, we all shape experience into stories, and Auster has done a storyteller's job himself of grouping these pieces effectively. Highly recommended." –Library Journal (starred review)

"Like no other book I have read in years, this one restored my belief in Americans and the American experience." –Philip Levine, Ploughshares

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Details

ISBN-10: 0312421001
ISBN-13: 9780312421007
Publisher: Picador USA
Publish Date: 09/07/2002
Dimensions: 8.20" L, 5.40" W, 0.80" H
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