Search - The Prince of Frogtown

I have forgotten just how powerful, how raw, how magical and how simply beautiful Rick Bragg's writing is. I never experienced the kind of life Rick had, never knew privations like his people did, never saw the rough side of life or experienced the spirit quenching miseries that they did.

...so why do I relate so much to it?

The best I can come up with is that reading Rick Bragg is like pulling back an unhealed scab and watching it bleed all over again. In the same way, it can sometimes hurt to read Bragg, but once you start, you can't stop until you peel away the final pages. His writing exposes what's deepest inside us; what hurts we nurse in secret, what dreams we cherish that might not come to fruition, what pain we can't let go of. This sounds trite and melodramatic as I type it, but it's only because I don't have the words or the ability to express how Bragg's writing affects me. I spent 20 solid minutes sobbing after I finished this book, and the next 20 minutes thinking about why I sobbed, and a final 20 minutes trying to come to terms with it and get some sleep. Frankly, I have no answers, except to say that Bragg speaks my language. His story about comimg to terms with his father is one I understand - but in a different way. He lost his father to alcohol. I lost mine to death. His father was an absent SOB. Mine was just absent.

The bottom line: we've all got issues in life. Bragg writes about them with the soul of a poet. He's a true Southern storyteller, and man, what a story he has to tell.

This book was a little different from Bragg's other memoirs. I think he had a difficult time with this one because he seemed to find out that his father wasn't as bad a man as he believed. You could tell in his writing that he was struggling with what he found out from his father's friends. In the end, he came to realize that he was more than just a worthless drunk.

Each chapter included hilarious stories about about Bragg's youngest stepson stepson. They also gave insight into how he had a hard time relating to him because he was growing up so differently from the way Bragg grew up.

If you enjoyed the other two books then I highly recommend this one. Just remember that it's a little different from his norm. I plan on adding this one to my library along with All Over but the Shoutin' and Ava's Man.

I love Rick Bragg's writing style. I find as I read now, I search for writers that have his way with words. No one seems to write quite like him. He's a talented writer.