All Over But The Shoutin': Summary and book reviews of All Over But The Shoutin' by Rick Bragg, plus links to an excerpt from All Over But The Shoutin' and a biography of Rick Bragg.
All Over But The Shoutin'
by Rick Bragg
Hardcover: Sep 1997,
329 pages.
Paperback: Aug 1998,
255 pages.
The extraordinary gifts for evocation and insight and the stunning talent for storytelling that earned Rick Bragg a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 1996 are here brought to bear on the wrenching story of his own family's life. It is the story of a violent, war-haunted, alcoholic father and a strong-willed, loving mother who struggled to protect her three sons from the effects of poverty and ignorance that had tainted her own life. It is the story of the life Bragg was able to carve out for himself on the strength of his mother's encouragement and belief.
BOOK REVIEWS
Media Reviews
Chicago Tribune
Deeply affecting.
Constitution Atlanta Journal
[T]ells about the South with such power and bone-naked love. . .that he will make you cry.
Pat Conroy
Rick Bragg writes like a man on fire. And All Over But The Shoutin' is a work of art. While reading this book, I fell in love with Rick Bragg's mother, Margaret Bragg, a hundred times. I felt like I was reading one of the prophets in the Old Testament when reading parts of this book. I thought of Melville, I thought of Faulkner.
Because I love the English language, I knew I was reading one of the best books I've ever read. By explaining his life to the world, Rick Bragg explained part of my life to me. You feel things in every line this man writes. His sentences bleed on you.
I wept when the book ended. I never met Rick Bragg in my life, but I called him up and told him he'd written a masterpiece, and I sent flowers to his mother.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Nellie Gray My favorite author of all time I know every person Rick writes about from my life being born in Appalachia and growing up as the "white trash" knowing that " everything might turn to ____ at any second." His words on paper lets me know that someone... Read More
Rated of 5
by Liz Meyers All over but the shoutin' In reading this book, it took me back to when I was a child traveling in the backseat of our old car over to grandma's homemade house on White river in Arkansas. My daddy was from Hamilton, Alabama and his daddy was run out of there to Ark for... Read More
An epic novel and a thrilling literary discovery, The Orphan Master's Son follows a young man's journey through the icy waters, dark tunnels, and eerie spy chambers of the world's most mysterious dictatorship, North Korea.
War, natural disaster, reckless gods and the recognition of impermanence in the world are just some of the threads that AS Byatt weaves into this most timely of books. Linguistically stunning and imaginatively abundant, this is a landmark.
A beguiling, imaginative, inspiring story about the bigness of being alive as an individual, as a member of a tribe, and as a participant in history, exploring how we use storytelling to survive and shape our own truths.
Brilliantly evoking the long-vanished world of masters and servants, Margaret Powell's classic memoir of her time in service is the remarkable true story of an indomitable woman who, though she served in the great houses of England, never stopped aiming high.
Vivid, daring, and unforgettable, The Printmaker's Daughter shines fresh light on art, loyalty, and the tender and indelible bond between a father and daughter.
I read The Healing in two sittings it is a fascinating story of plantation life at the beginning of the Civil War. Granada, a slave newborn child...
read more
The Uncommon Reader is a novella by novelist and playwright, Alan Bennett. The story starts with the Queen coming across the mobile library van...
read more
Amazon to open bricks and mortar store in Seattle(Feb 07 2012) Last week, the word in the blogosphere was that Amazon was considering opening a bricks-and-mortar store. Over the weekend goodereader.com added substance to...
Full Story
Arizona bills Amazon for $53 million in uncollected sales tax(Feb 06 2012) The ongoing sales tax battle between many US states and large online retailers, most notably Amazon, continues with a thrust from Arizona which, last week,...
Full Story