The Bridge to Take When Things Get Serious - Softcover

Jakiela, Lori

Softcover

ISBN 10: 069241228X ISBN 13: 9780692412282

Publisher: WPA Books, 2015

Synopsis

Her 70-year-old, cancer-stricken mother kills snakes with a broom. Her best friend believes in psychics and the Virgin Mary. Her new neighbor steals her CDs and her aunt sneaks cheese curls into the house. After seven years in New York, Lori Jakiela gives up her job as an international flight attendant and her dreams of becoming a writer, and returns home to Pittsburgh to take care of her dying mother. A loving but befuddled daughter, Jakiela stumbles to find her new life while sleeping in her childhood bed and teaching writing to students who hate to read. Unexpected love, expected loss, the struggle to find our own families, THE BRIDGE TO TAKE WHEN THINGS GET SERIOUS is the story of mothers and daughters, the debts we pay, and the new lives we build for ourselves when we least expect them.

About this title

About the Author

Lori Jakiela is the author of the memoirs Miss New York Has Everything (Warner/Hatchette, 2006) and The Bridge to Take When Things Get Serious (WPA Press), which received an 2013 Ippy Award. She is also the author of a poetry collection - Spot the Terrorist!(Turning Point, 2012) -- and several limited-edition poetry chapbooks. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and more. She is a recipient of the City of Asylum-Pittsburgh Prize, a Golden Quill Award from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize many times. She teaches in the writing programs at The University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg and Chatham University. Her third memoir - Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth, Maybe - will be published by Atticus Books in Summer 2015. For more, visit lorijakiela.net.

Review

"Lori Jakiela is the queen of the wise one-liner.  Fiercely sad and heartbreakingly funny, The Bridge to Take When Things Get Serious is about the mystery of the people closest to us-how they drive us crazy and why we need them so much."
- Stewart O'Nan, author of Emily, Alone and The Odds.              

"This beautiful evocation of life with a fierce, hilarious, iconically mind-boggling mother is both heart-breaking and heart-expanding. The book looks at what it means to be truly rooted and devoted to place, to parents as they age and eventually die, to husband and children who come along as a shocking surprise. This is a highly original writer who commemorates life with great humor and a radical, poetic simplicity that allows you see your own life anew."
-- Jane McCafferty, best-selling author of First You Try Everything and more

"Jakiela is on a lively quest to once and for all end the listlessness of life, and she has the strength to do it! This memoir will knock you out with its high energy, unstoppable humor, and stirring tenderness."
- Deb Olin Unferth, author of Revolution and more

"Finally, a working-class memoir that tells the truth about mothers and daughters -- and daughters and their wild lives and unexpected adventures -- in language sharp as a broken bottle. Every page offers a moment, a scene, an insight, or some beautiful combination of the three, that made me laugh out loud or recoil in recognition. This is a brilliant book about what it means to grow up, to grow old, and to hold on." -Alicia Erian, author of Towelhead and more

"Lori Jakiela's painfully funny memoir "The Bridge to Take When Things Get Serious" is so good you'll wonder why the author isn't the literary toast of the entire country by now...Part of the unabashed fun of reading this book is seeing familiar landmarks through the eyes of an exceptionally talented writer who is only one New York Times book review away from a national reputation. This memoir may not be the last word on the volatile subject of mother/daughter relationships, but it is already among the most honest and best written this decade." -- Tony Norman, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

About this edition

• Publisher: WPA Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 069241228X
• ISBN 13: 9780692412282
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 274