Grand: A Grandparent's Wisdom for a Happy Life

by Charles Johnson

Overview

National Book Award winner and MacArthur Genius Fellow Charles Johnson reflects on the joys of being a grandparent in this warm, inspiring collection of wisdom and life lessons—the ideal gift for any new parent or grandparent

An award-winning novelist, philosopher, essayist, screenwriter, professor and cartoonist, Charles Johnson has held numerous impressive titles over the course of his incomparable career. Now, for the first time, with his trademark wisdom and philosophical generosity, he turns his attention to his most important role yet: grandparent.

In Grand, Johnson shares stories from his life with his six-year-old grandson, Emery, weaving in advice and life lessons that stand the test of time. “Looking at the problems I see in the world around me,” Johnson writes, “I realize that there are so many things I want to say to him about the goodness and beauty that life offers. What are the perennial truths that I can impart to Emery that might make his journey through life easier or more rewarding?” Johnson shares these truths and more, offering profound meditations on family, race, freedom and creativity.

Joyful, lucid and deeply comforting, Grand is Johnson at his most accessible and profound, an indispensable compendium for new grandparents and growing grandchildren alike, from one of America’s most revered thinkers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781335015860
Publisher:	Hanover Square Press
Publication date:	05/05/2020
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	273,475
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Charles Johnson is a novelist, essayist, literary scholar, philosopher, cartoonist, screenwriter and professor emeritus at the University of Washington in Seattle. A MacArthur Fellow, his fiction includes Night Hawks, Dr. King’s Refrigerator, Dreamer, Faith and the Good Thing and Middle Passage, for which he won the National Book Award. In 2002 he received the Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Seattle.

Editorial Reviews

A delightful collection of essays from the award-winning novelist on the joys of being a grandparent, offering life lessons and wise observations.”—New York Post, Best Books of the Week


"Johnson reflects on lessons that stand the test of time."—Parade

“Demanding, bighearted, and generous—we should all be so lucky to have such a grandfather.”—Kirkus Reviews


“Johnson reflects on the joys of being a grandparent in this warm, inspiring collection offering advice and life lessons.”—National Examiner


“Warmly written…. There's enough fascinating grist for the mill to engage almost anyone.”—National Catholic Reporter


“Filled with love and wisdom that ultimately leads to joy.”—Washington Informer


“A warm, inspiring collection of wisdom and life lessons that grandparents and parents alike will cherish.”—Northwest Prime Time


"Masterfully weaves his wisdom of years into warm and generous advice."—3rd Act Magazine

From the Publisher

2020-03-02
The National Book Award winner fleshes out 10 ideas on the art of life for his grandson, Emery.

Johnson knows that he will want Emery to be a thinker, to “realize that it is every serious thinker’s job to sustain the frail light of clarity and reason in the ever-present darkness of ignorance, superstition, ideology, dogma, prejudice, and demagoguery.” But as he proceeds through life, hunting and gathering the experiences that will continuously shape him over the years, the author wonders if there are “some things that are timeless or come close to being so”—knowing himself through self-examination, which will be “necessary for him at every stage and season of his life, because he is a process, not a product.” Johnson draws on his many experiences throughout his rangy and inquisitive life, a life he frames as a source of his guidance: the examples of his family members who struggled against and overcame the daily bigotry that infested their lives; his years as a young political cartoonist; his college years in the early 1970s and his doctorate in philosophy; his time as an English professor and literary scholar; and his practice of Eastern philosophy and martial arts. He uses all of these experiences to create valuable lessons and tools, including egoless listening; letting things go (“we live best when we are devoted to giving, not to accumulating”); the beauty of love, both of self and of others; that pain is an inevitable part of life, but we are free to decide how we will react, in suffering, vengeance, or empathy; that our intentions are critical to our way of being. Johnson digs deep, but he is never obscure, presenting these ideas in context in order to properly explain why he thinks they are important.

Demanding, bighearted, and generous—we should all be so lucky to have such a grandfather.

Kirkus Reviews

12/01/2019

MacArthur fellow Johnson, winner of a National Book Award for his novel Middle Passage, has always ranged widely; as a cartoonist, he recently collaborated with his daughter on Emery's World, a children's book series advancing STEM education, especially to children of color. Here he talks about his life with six-year-old grandson Emery, offering life lessons for us all. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Library Journal

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