Description
Book SynopsisPictures of Home is based on photographs that were stored on a shelf in the bedroom closet where Douglas Bukowski grew up. The pictures are a source and a measure. They show a family on the South Side of Chicago, where the children of immigrants fought to keep out the descendants of slaves. They show a boy from Hardscrabble who forever lived in the shadow of Richard J. Daley. The one was born within a mile of the other; each received the baptismal name of Joseph; they both drew a city paycheck as firefighter or mayor; and they died on the same date in December. The pictures tell about a husband and wife, their children, and the inevitability of change. While the house they lived in remained much the same from 1939 to 2000, the surrounding neighborhood did not. The streets changed, the children grew up, and the man died a slow death to which two daughters and a son bore witness even as they sought to fight it. The mother stays in the house still, comforted by pictures of a life that slips from her memory a little more each day. The pictures and the history behind them are brought to life in stunning fashion in Mr. Bukowski's spare prose. Pictures of Home is the story of a family and a city, told affectionately and endearingly by one who is part of both.
Trade ReviewAn accomplished writer. . . . Told in a moving first-person account. * Library Bookwatch *
A sensitive and moving memoir. . . . Explores with poignance and compassion a son's passage from childhood to caretaker. * Chicago Tribune *
His insights are valuable. . . . Captures the no-nonsense, down-to-earth atmosphere of the city. * Columbus Dispatch *
This is more than another Chicago book. Pictures of Home is a narrative about humanity through the prism of the Bukowski family. -- Michael H. Ebner * Family Narrative *
People . . . are depicted in an honest and unsentimental manner. This is a good personal and universal history of the past. -- Florence Clowes * Polish American Journal *
You can feel the tension . . . and can relate Bukowski's experience to your own. Vivid telling. -- Susan Lorimor * Daily Southtown *
A sensitive, moving memoir. -- Harry Mark Petrakis * Chicago Tribune *
A first rate social history. . . . An important contribution to the literature of Chicago. -- Ellen Skerrett, author of Born in Chicago: A History of Chicago’s Jesuit University * Catholic New World *
Mr. Bukowski’s memoir is a wonderful family portrait that endearingly chronicles the essence and importance of heritage. -- Dave Cowan
Tucked inside this brick bungalow story . . . is a very candid, sometimes prickly account of Bukowski’s relationship with his father. The writing is tough then lyrical, sympathetic then tart, but always with insight that reveals how fathers and sons coexist, and occasionally thrive. A nice job. Not an easy book. Which is to its credit. -- William Brashler
Bukowski’s book is an honest, affectionate, unsentimental account of an urban working-class life that now seems lost. . . . How else can we preserve it except through truth-telling books like this one? -- Samuel Hynes, awarded 2004 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
An excellently researched literary exploration of his family and Chicago. His impressions of his family and the city are filled with smart and clever observations, often engaging the heart and intellect. * Publishers Weekly *
