Perfectly miserable : guilt, God, and real estate in a small town
(Book)
Author
Published
New York, New York : Riverhead Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA), 2014.
Physical Desc
307 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Status
Copies
Location | Call Number | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|
Cambria Library - Adult Nonfiction | 818.5403 S932 | Checked Out | May 2, 2024 |
Description
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Subjects
LC Subjects
Authors, American -- 20th century -- Biography.
Authors, American -- 21st century -- Biography.
Concord (Mass.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century.
Concord (Mass.) -- Social life and customs -- 21st century.
Mothers and daughters -- Massachusetts -- Concord -- Biography.
Rich people -- Massachusetts -- Concord -- Biography.
Stuart, Sarah Payne.
Upper class -- Massachusetts -- Concord -- Biography.
Authors, American -- 21st century -- Biography.
Concord (Mass.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century.
Concord (Mass.) -- Social life and customs -- 21st century.
Mothers and daughters -- Massachusetts -- Concord -- Biography.
Rich people -- Massachusetts -- Concord -- Biography.
Stuart, Sarah Payne.
Upper class -- Massachusetts -- Concord -- Biography.
More Details
Published
New York, New York : Riverhead Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA), 2014.
Format
Book
Language
English
Notes
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-307).
Description
"A wryly comic memoir that examines the pillars of New England WASP culture-class, history, family, money, envy, perfection, and, of course, real estate-through the lens of mothers and daughters. At eighteen, Sarah Payne Stuart fled her mother and all the other disapproving mothers of her too perfect hometown of Concord, Massachusetts, only to return years later when she had children of her own. Whether to defy the previous generation or finally earn their approval and enter their ranks, she hurled herself into upper-crust domesticity full throttle. In the twenty years Stuart spent back in her hometown-in a series of ever more magnificent houses in ever grander neighborhoods-she was forced to connect with the cultural tradition of guilt and flawed parenting of a long legacy of local, literary women from Emerson's wife, to Hawthorne's, to the most famous and imposing of them all, Louisa May Alcott's iconic, guilt-tripping Marmee. When Stuart's own mother dies, she realizes that there is no one left to approve or disapprove. And so, with her suddenly grown children fleeing as she herself once did, Stuart leaves her hometown for the final time, bidding good-bye to the cozy ideals invented for her by Louisa May Alcott so many years ago, which may or may not ever have been based in reality"--,Provided by publisher.
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