Purchase
Six Generations of Madness and Desire in an American Family
HarperCollins
January 2007
On Sale: January 9, 2007
432 pages
ISBN: 0060521597
EAN: 9780060521592
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Memoir
John Sedgwick's widely praised novels introduced readers to
the rarified enclave of Brahmin Boston, in which privilege
and elitism, handed down from one generation to the next,
come at a price. He discovered for himself just how great
that price can be when, while writing his second novel, he
spiraled into a profound depression that threatened his life. This crisis provoked him to search for the source of his
malaise. Did it begin with him, or did it begin before,
possibly even long before, with previous generations whose
genes he bore? If so, how had the "family illness," as he
came to think of it, shaped their lives, and come to define
his? To find the answers, he launched into a full-scale
investigation of his family's history—one of the oldest, and
fully documented in America. It was, at once, a very
personal journey of self-discovery, and a broader retracing
of his family's evolution, as he pored over the many
extraordinary Sedgwicks who had gone before—from the protean
early Speaker of the House Theodore Sedgwick through to Edie
Sedgwick, Andy Warhol's muse and the 1960s "It Girl." Both a
brimming family saga and a courageous narrative, the book
paints a startlingly candid portrait of a man and an eminent
American family.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy