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Rick Bragg Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Rick Bragg
Photo copyright Marion Etlinger

Rick Bragg

Rick Bragg Biography

Rick Bragg (b. 1959) is the author of seven books, including the best-selling Ava's Man and All Over but the Shoutin'. He is also a regular contributor to Garden & Gun Magazine. He lives in Alabama.



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Interview

Rick Bragg talks briefly about his book, All Over But The Shoutin' - the first of two biographies of his childhood and, in particular, his mother.

"This is a book about getting even with life.

It is the story of a young woman who absorbed the cruelties of her husband, an alcoholic, haunted Korean War veteran, until she could stand it no more, then gave up her whole life for her children. By picking cotton, cleaning toilets for the gentry, doing worse, she made sure that her three surviving sons would not have to walk around ashamed, in ragged clothes.

In a smaller way it is my story, the boy who climbed up her backbone and made it out of that ring of poverty and ignorance, free and clean. It is about what I did with the life she gave me, and how I tried to repay her, and how I tried--and failed so miserably--to rewrite the past.

The book is set in rural northeastern Alabama, and chronicles a poor, white trash family through three generations. The first third of the book is mostly about her and him, and us, me and my brothers, as babies. It shows the agony of the death of a baby brother who did not have to die, who didn't even get a name.

It also takes us with my father to Korea. He tugged me there, the last time I saw him alive, when I was just 16. The tales of terror he told me there still sit like a broken bottle in my mind.
The second third is about...

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Books by this Author

Books by Rick Bragg at BookBrowse
The Best Cook in the World jacket The Prince of Frogtown jacket Ava's Man jacket All Over But The Shoutin' jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Rick Bragg but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Linda Scott DeRosier

    Linda Scott DeRosier

    Linda Scott DeRosier has published two memoirs of her life growing up in Appalachia, Creeker and Songs of Life and Grace. She received the Appalachian Writers Association Awared for non-ficition and the Thomas D. Clark Award... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Ava's Man

    Try:
    Creeker
    by Linda Scott DeRosier

  • Andre Dubus III

    Andre Dubus III

    Before finding his calling as a writer, Andre Dubus III (b. Oceanside, California) worked for brief stints as a bounty hunter, private investigator, carpenter, bartender, actor, and teacher. His first book, The Cage ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Ava's Man

    Try:
    Townie
    by Andre Dubus III

We recommend 14 similar authors


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