Those Days: An American AlbumThe MacArthur Grant-winning journalist who has written previously on village life in Asia, Africa, and Latin America here turns to his own heritage in a history of his family from 1880-1940. Initially, the book seems a skillful, but placid portrait of rural Midwestern life. However, uncovering the tragic dissolution of Critchfield's father--the author knew him only as a young child--turns the story from thoughtful nostalgia into a brooding chronicle that is turbulent, disturbing, and completely fascinating. The book's core is drawn from interviews with neighbors and family, as well as contemporary local newspapers, and hundreds of family documents, letters and journals. These pages of interviews re-create the dream-like workings of memory, fastening on minor details, linking unrelated images and ideas, omitting basic facts, yet telling the important story. Critchfield extrapolates and fills in details, his careful research justifies and gives credence to these fictions. |
Contents
Prologue | 1 |
Saints 17741884 | 13 |
Hadwen and Jessie Family Journal 188491 | 24 |
Copyright | |
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Anna Louise Anne asked baby barn Beecher Betty Billy blackface bobsled bow boat boys brother buggy Burke called Casselton church Critchfield Daddy dance doctor dollars eyes face Fargo Fargo Forum farm farmer Father Fessenden fire Fred Hultstrand girl gone Haddie Hadwen hair hand Harry hear heard horses Hunter Iowa Jessie Jim's Jimmy kids kitchen knew later Le Claire Linn Grove lived looked loved Maddock Mama married miles Minneapolis minstrel show morning Mother Mount Vernon never night Norma North Dakota once patients Peggy piano played prairie Quaker seemed sing snow stayed summer Sykeston talk tell terrible thing thought threshing told took town trees Upper Iowa University wagon walk Walter Donaldson wanted wife Williams window young