One Day on the Gold Line: A Memoir in Essays

by Carla Rachel Sameth

Overview

"Sameth’s book presents a brutally honest and much-needed account of family-building and parenting in the twenty-first century." –New Pages

Through meditations on race, culture, and family, One Day on the Gold Line tells the story of a lesbian Jewish single mother raising a black son in Los Angeles. A memoir-in-essays, it examines life’s surprising changes that come through choice or circumstance, often seemingly out of nowhere, and sometimes darkly humorous—even as the situations are dire.

While escaping from a burning boat, Carla realizes that if she died, her one regret would be not having children. She overcomes miscarriages to finally give birth to a son. Motherhood’s usual struggles are then complicated by identity, community, and the challenges of creating a blended family. The overarching theme of these loosely woven reflective tales is the storyteller’s dream of the “perfect” family, the pursuit of which hurls her from one crisis to the next, ultimately meeting its greatest challenge in the form of her teenage son’s struggle with drug addiction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684332618
Publisher:	Black Rose Writing
Publication date:	07/18/2019
Edition description:	First Printing ed.
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Carla Rachel Sameth is a writer whose work has appeared in various anthologies and publications. She was selected as a 2016 PEN In The Community Teaching Artist, teaches creative writing at the LA Writing Project at California State University Los Angeles and at Southern New Hampshire University, has an MFA from Queens University in Charlotte, and is a member of the Pasadena Rose Poets. She lives in Los Angeles with her wife.

Editorial Reviews

“There is so much to admire in these warm, funny, and deeply human tales of love, sex, motherhood, and other adventures. Carla Sameth never gives up on herself, and her readers will never give up on her.” —Héctor Tobar, author of the New York Times bestseller: Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine and the Miracle That Set Them Free

“Race, class, drugs, sexuality, otherness…twenty-first century American hot-button issues are on full display in this brave, gritty, unflinching memoir. As the single lesbian mother of a Jewish and African American son, Sameth navigates dangerous cultural trends tearing at the fabric of her non-traditional family. Sameth shows that a family is not an abstraction, but a tribe that overcomes threats only when those threats are faced head-on. This is a ‘feel-good’ book not because it’s fuzzy and vague, but because of its clear-eyed, truth-telling love.” —Sue William Silverman, author, The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew and Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir

“A beautifully written memoir…notable for clarity and originality. A sharp wit and defiant humor run through this book, giving it an upbeat energy.” —Kathryn Rhett, author of Immortal Village, Souvenir, and Survival Stories: Memoirs of Crisis

“Set in California, in the context of Black Lives Matter, same sex marriage laws, and publication of The New Jim Crow, Sameth’s narrative is a riveting story of resilience—of what happens when what we hope for, and what we get, stand in stark, though sometimes beautiful, contrast.” —Marcelle Soviero, editor-in-chief BrainChild: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers

“Carla Sameth has seen it all—and she’s the perfect guide to show us the poetry she found. Like motherhood itself, One Day on the Gold Line will break your heart in all the right places and put it back together a little differently.” —Ariel Gore, author, editor/publisher of Hip Mama

“The well-crafted essays of Carla Sameth’s memoir, One Day on the Gold Line, kept me riveted. Sameth tells deeply moving personal stories about overwhelming yearning and love that make you frighteningly vulnerable, finding the courage to face the worst, losing the person you were in your youth and discovering her again. This is a truly beautiful book.” —Lillian Faderman, author, Naked in the Promised Land: A Memoir and Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death

From the Publisher