House of Prayer No. 2: A Writer's Journey Home

House of Prayer No. 2: A Writer's Journey Home

In this otherworldly memoir of extraordinary power, Mark Richard, an award-winning author, tells his story of growing up in the American South with a heady Gothic mix of racial tension and religious fervor.
Â
Â Â Â Called a â€œspecial child,â€ Southern social code for mentallyâ€”and physicallyâ€”challenged children, Richard was crippled by deformed hips and was told he would spend his adult life in a wheelchair. During his early years in charity hospitals, Richard observed the drama of other broken boysâ€™ lives, children from impoverished Appalachia, tobacco country lowlands, and Richmondâ€™s poorest neighborhoods. The son of a solitary alcoholic father whose hair-trigger temper terrorized his family, and ofÂ a mother who sought inner peace through fasting, prayer, and scripture, Richard spent his bedridden childhoodÂ withdrawn intoÂ the company of books.Â Â Â

Â Â Â As a young man, Richard, defying both his doctors and parents, set out to experience as much of the world as he couldâ€”as a disc jockey, fishing trawler deckhand, house painter, naval correspondent, aerial photographer, private investigator, foreign journalist, bartender andÂ unsuccessful seminarianâ€”before his hips failed him.Â While digging irrigation ditches in east Texas, he discovered that a teacher had sent a story of his to the Atlantic, where it was named a winner in the magazineâ€™s national fiction contest launching a career much in the mold of Jack London and Mark Twain.Â

Â Â Â A superbly written and irresistible blend of history, travelogue, and personal reflection, House of Prayer No. 2 is a remarkable portrait of a writerâ€™s struggle with his faith, the evolution of his art, and of recognizing oneâ€™s singularity in the face of painful disability.Â Written with humor and a poetic force, this memoir is destined to become a modern classic.
Country USA
Manufacturer Nan A. Talese
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2011-02-15
UnitCount 1
Format Deckle Edge
EANs 9780385513029

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Nan A. Talese
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2011-02-15
UnitCount	1
Format	Deckle Edge
EANs	9780385513029

House of Prayer No. 2: A Writer's Journey Home

You might also like...