When We Were the Kennedys: A Memoir from Mexico, Maine - Hardcover

Wood, Monica

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 054763014X ISBN 13: 9780547630144

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012

Synopsis

1963, Mexico, Maine. The Wood family is much like its close, Catholic, immigrant neighbors, all dependent on a father’s wages from the Oxford Paper Company. Until the sudden death of Dad, when Mum and the four closely connected Wood girls are set adrift. Funny and to-the-bone moving, When We Were the Kennedys is the story of how this family saves itself, at first by depending on Father Bob, Mum’s youngest brother, a charismatic Catholic priest who feels his new responsibilities deeply. And then, as the nation is shocked by the loss of its handsome Catholic president, the televised grace of Jackie Kennedy—she too a Catholic widow with young children—galvanizes Mum to set off on an unprecedented family road trip to Washington, D.C., to do some rescuing of her own. An indelible story of how family and nation, each shocked by the unimaginable, exchange one identity for another.
“Monica Wood has written a gorgeous, gripping memoir. I don’t know that I’ve ever pulled so hard for a family.”—Michael Paterniti, author ofDriving Mr. Albert

About this title

Book Description

HMH Hardcover, 2012Previous ISBN 978-0-547-63014-4

From the Inside Flap

"Monica Wood has written a gorgeous, gripping memoir. I don't know that I've ever pulled so hard for a family. When We Were the Kennedys captures a shimmering mill-town world on the edge of oblivion, in a voice that brims with hope, feeling, and wonder. The book humbles and soars.”—Mike Paterniti, author of Driving Mr. Albert

Mexico, Maine, 1963: The Wood family is much like its close, Catholic, immigrant neighbors, all dependent on the fathers' wages from the Oxford Paper Company. But when Dad suddenly dies on his way to work one April morning, Mum and the four deeply connected Wood girls are set adrift. Funny and to-the-bone moving, When We Were the Kennedys is the story of how this family saves itself, at first by enlisting the help of Mum's brother, Father Bob, a charismatic Catholic priest. And then, come November—her brother still overwhelmed by grief, her country shocked by the president's death, and her town bracing for a labor strike—Mum announces an unprecedented family road trip. Inspired by the televised grace of Jackie Kennedy, herself a new widow with young children, Mum and her girls head to "our nation's capital" to do some rescuing of their own. An indelible story of how family and nation, each shocked by the unimaginable, exchange one identity for another.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 054763014X
• ISBN 13: 9780547630144
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 235