Fake Smiles
Fake Smiles is a graceful, moving and reflective memoir of a contentious fatherson relationship set against the backdrop of the Eisenhower and Nixon eras. The father–William P. Rogers–was attorney general in the Eisenhower administration and secretary of state in the Nixon administration, a period of dramatic change from post-war stability to the turmoil of the sixties. The author–Tony Rogers–the shy, introspective oldest son of the Rogers family marched against the Vietnam War while his dad was heading the State Department, played guitar in rock and jazz bands, built ham radios, spent two summers working on farms and had no appetite to "get ahead" which was his hard-driving and competitive father's constant mantra. Gradually and with great difficulty, father and son learned to accept each other. Always candid, never sparing himself, Tony Rogers–an award winning novelist and short story writer–recounts what the difficult time and that difficult relationship were like.

The famous and infamous were frequent visitors to the Rogers household. Richard Nixon often stopped for drinks after playing golf at Burning Tree, Robert Frost came to thank Bill Rogers for his help in getting Ezra Pound out of St. Elizabeths mental hospital, and the Red-baiting senator Joseph McCarthy tried to teach Tony how to box in the family living room.

The record of an unorthodox life and a hard-won father-son relationship, Fake Smiles is an uncommonly literate, personal history that reveals fresh insights into a pivotal and still influential era of contemporary American history.
1125333092
Fake Smiles
Fake Smiles is a graceful, moving and reflective memoir of a contentious fatherson relationship set against the backdrop of the Eisenhower and Nixon eras. The father–William P. Rogers–was attorney general in the Eisenhower administration and secretary of state in the Nixon administration, a period of dramatic change from post-war stability to the turmoil of the sixties. The author–Tony Rogers–the shy, introspective oldest son of the Rogers family marched against the Vietnam War while his dad was heading the State Department, played guitar in rock and jazz bands, built ham radios, spent two summers working on farms and had no appetite to "get ahead" which was his hard-driving and competitive father's constant mantra. Gradually and with great difficulty, father and son learned to accept each other. Always candid, never sparing himself, Tony Rogers–an award winning novelist and short story writer–recounts what the difficult time and that difficult relationship were like.

The famous and infamous were frequent visitors to the Rogers household. Richard Nixon often stopped for drinks after playing golf at Burning Tree, Robert Frost came to thank Bill Rogers for his help in getting Ezra Pound out of St. Elizabeths mental hospital, and the Red-baiting senator Joseph McCarthy tried to teach Tony how to box in the family living room.

The record of an unorthodox life and a hard-won father-son relationship, Fake Smiles is an uncommonly literate, personal history that reveals fresh insights into a pivotal and still influential era of contemporary American history.
9.99 In Stock
Fake Smiles

Fake Smiles

by Tony Rogers
Fake Smiles

Fake Smiles

by Tony Rogers

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers

LEND ME® See Details

Overview

Fake Smiles is a graceful, moving and reflective memoir of a contentious fatherson relationship set against the backdrop of the Eisenhower and Nixon eras. The father–William P. Rogers–was attorney general in the Eisenhower administration and secretary of state in the Nixon administration, a period of dramatic change from post-war stability to the turmoil of the sixties. The author–Tony Rogers–the shy, introspective oldest son of the Rogers family marched against the Vietnam War while his dad was heading the State Department, played guitar in rock and jazz bands, built ham radios, spent two summers working on farms and had no appetite to "get ahead" which was his hard-driving and competitive father's constant mantra. Gradually and with great difficulty, father and son learned to accept each other. Always candid, never sparing himself, Tony Rogers–an award winning novelist and short story writer–recounts what the difficult time and that difficult relationship were like.

The famous and infamous were frequent visitors to the Rogers household. Richard Nixon often stopped for drinks after playing golf at Burning Tree, Robert Frost came to thank Bill Rogers for his help in getting Ezra Pound out of St. Elizabeths mental hospital, and the Red-baiting senator Joseph McCarthy tried to teach Tony how to box in the family living room.

The record of an unorthodox life and a hard-won father-son relationship, Fake Smiles is an uncommonly literate, personal history that reveals fresh insights into a pivotal and still influential era of contemporary American history.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940157268718
Publisher: TidePool Press
Publication date: 02/11/2017
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 224
File size: 5 MB

About the Author

Tony Rogers holds degrees from Yale and Harvard Law School. Once upon a time, he was a professional musician, briefly a Wall Street lawyer and for twenty-five years a hospital administrator. He is the winner of the Nilsen Prize for a First Novel and the Writer's Voice Capricorn Prize for a collection of short stories. The Nilsen Prize winning novel, The Execution of Richard Sturgis, As Told by His Son, Colin, was published by Southeast Missouri State University Press in 2013. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Pleiades, Thema, North Dakota Quarterly, The Worcester Review, The Boston Globe Magazine, and many others. Rogers lives in Cambridge with his wife Tamara.
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews