Description
Those of Irish ancestry may recognize their own family's habits in this memoir by Waters (English, Queens College, New York City). Waters relates the history and politics of her Irish parents, her childhood in the Bronx, her education in Catholic schools, the culture of her Irish neighborhood, and her ultimate rebellion from the mores there. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Maureen Waters began writing about the Bronx in the spirit of dinnseachas, Irish place lore, as a means of recuperating from the accidental death of her son, whose story frames her own. Finding her way through the disorienting 1960s, after a girlhood tutored by nuns and inspired by the Holy Ghost, she set out on a kind of spiritual journey to recover what was valuable and life-sustaining in the Irish Catholic experience left behind. Writing her memoir meant coming to terms with the powerful matriarchal voices that inspired both affection and immobilizing guilt. Ultimately, <i>Crossing Highbridge</i> is a tribute to her father, for whom storytelling was an art of healing.
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