The Shame of What We Are

by Sam Gridley

Overview

The American 1950s--a simpler, more innocent age? Not for an awkward, nerdy kid like Art Dennison. As Art grows up with a father who can explode at any time and a mother who doesn't fit the required role, his life sometimes feels surreal. The "pieces" of this slyly humorous, compassionate novel reflect Art's fragmentary experience in a family always on the move--from one temporary home to another, from East Coast to West, always seeking the elusive American dream.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940013665729
Publisher:	New Door Books
Publication date:	01/18/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	199
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

After being born in Pittsburgh, Sam Gridley lived in Camden, Providence, Bristol, Westchester, Palos Verdes Estates, Torrance, Redondo Beach, Northridge, Culver City, Berkeley, Oakland, Cambridge, Brighton, London, Palo Alto, Bellefonte, Baltimore, Lyndhurst, Rutherford, and perhaps other communities he has forgotten. This was before the age of 29. Since then he has settled in Philadelphia and scarcely budged. Married for many years, Sam has two grown children, one growing dog and a small backyard where several gerbils are buried.

Sam's fiction and satire have appeared in more than thirty magazines and anthologies. He has received two fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University.

Editorial Reviews

Sam Gridley skillfully interweaves details about both pop culture (America's burgeoning addiction to television, for example) and world events (the launch of Sputnik, desegregation) that make the 1950's setting come alive in a wonderfully vivid manner. To that end, the dozen or so illustrations by artist Tom Jackson marvelously capture the essence of the stories, helping bring them even further to life....

Elizabeth A. White

Filled with a self-deprecating humor, and stark, if not painful, insights into how
one survives in a precarious environment, this novel slices open the veins of a confused boy and allows the reader to walk a decade inside his skin. Though at times
it is uncomfortable, one cannot turn too long from the truths unfolding in these
pages.

Jessica Henkle

It might feel tempting to dismiss such a small book by a new writer but I find myself still thinking about it days after finishing. The emotional honesty is striking.... Tom Jackson’s illustrations are priceless and really catch the mood of the story, the landscape and the times.

Cynthia Tooley

The Shame of What We Are is a beautifully illustrated collection of connected stories that follow Art Dennison from 1951, when he is five years old, to 1964. This “novel in pieces” tracks Art and his family as they go through several seismic changes in location, marital status, emotional maturity and emotional stability.... I found myself thinking, as I made my way through this novel, that it was a more sane, coherent and entertaining portrait than the James Joyce classic.

Mayowa Atte

This is one of the best books I've read in a long, long time.... Gridley vividly recreates life in the fifties, the impact of television ... and how arduous life without air conditioned cars, fast food restaurants, disposable diapers, and instant baby formula could be, especially for a marriage already in trouble.... What is most affecting about this book is the simple honesty of a child's sensual and emotional response to the events of growing up with his family.

Marcy Casterline O'Rourke

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