Description
Book SynopsisAnalyzing contemporary narratives of the secret lives led by writers' fathers.
Trade ReviewA compelling close reading of eighteen memoirs, all of which, Porter finds, struggle with the problem of narrative voice and agency in the context of auto/biography. Structurally, Porter's book is methodical, with each text given the same treatment: a thesis that connects the text to the chapter's theme; an introduction to the text; the methods or levels of detective work involved in the writer's search; the attitude with which the text seems to be written—vengeful, understanding, judgmental, self-reflective; a comparator text; and an interrogation into whether the text's success in finding parent or self.
-- Teresa Coronado * Rocky Mountain Review *
Detective stories are everywhere: as many critics have claimed, most novels, at least since Bleak House, bear traces of detective fiction. If this is true of novels, Porter's fascinating book argues that it is also the case for literary memoirs—where the mysteries and people investigated are particularly close to home.
-- Jonathan Taylor * Times Literary Supplement *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Child's Book of Parental Deception1. Faith-Changing for Life
The Wounds of Memory: Shame and Discovery in the Kurzem Family
Into the Belly of the Beast: Counterfeiting Identity for Survival
Probing Secret Conversions: Helen Fremont's Anguished Inquisition2. Deciphering Enigma Codes
Shadowing the Furtive Father Beyond the Grave: Mary Gordon’s Ambivalent Inquiry
"Love Is No Detective": Germaine Greer’s Guilty Hunt
Family on the Lam: A Son Running After Secrets
A Scavenger in the Archives: The "Memory Boy" Tracks His Parents
The Naked Lady’s Face and the Detective’s Effacement3. The Men Who Were Not There
Sleuthing Amidst the Shards of the Past: Tracking Absence in the Austers
The Letters and the Flag: Recuperating a Lost Father
Speaking Him into the World: A Daughter Reenters Her Father’s History
A Father Gone Missing: Documenting a Broken Bond4. Becoming One’s Parent
The Limits of Privacy: Decorum and Exposure at the Ackerley’s
"Lies Like Contagious Diseases": The Secrets of the Duke and His Son
Imagining Himself in the Paternal Matrix
Shared Secrets in the Fun House5. Breaking the Silence
Race, Secrecy, and Discovery: Black on White, White on BlackConclusion: Freedom or Exploitation?Bibliography
Index
