Man Killed by Pheasant and Other Kinships (Bur Oak Book) - Softcover

Price, John T

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1609380754 ISBN 13: 9781609380755

Publisher: University Of Iowa Press, 2012

Synopsis

John Price’s Man Killed by Pheasant is a loving ode to the prairies of the Midwest, to west central Iowa, and to family connections that stretch from his Swedish ancestors to his parents to his wife and children. Throughout he embraces “the opportunity, as always, to settle, to remember, and be ready.” This quest sounds more portentous than it is once enriched with Price’s gentle humor and endearing empathy. Sharing stories of home, secrets of landscape, and binding ties to both, he weaves history and memory to create permanent kinships for himself and for his readers.

About this title

From the Publisher

"John Price's memoir is a powerful inquiry into what it means to be a Midwesterner. In a style that replicates the laconic surface and passionate undercurrents of that region, he has fashioned not only a personal story but a powerful evocation of the land and its European immigrant families. Essential reading for--and of--the heartland."--Patricia Hampl, author of The Florist's Daughter

"John Price writes with exceptional lucidity, humor and wisdom about his unexceptional--and exemplary--American life. I spent my own youth in this very region, and I don't know a better or more charming prose distillation of its sweet, homely beauty and melancholy. Man Killed by Pheasant is a perfect non-fiction companion to the stories of Garrison Keillor and the movies of Alexander Payne."--Kurt Andersen, author of Heyday

"In this splendid memoir, John Price--a warm, compassionate, humorous narrator--takes us through a journey of awakening to the natural world. This is the kind of book you'll want to read slowly, savoring each chapter for its richness of thought, its depth of emotion."--Mary Swander, author of Out of this World: A Journey of Healing

"Man Killed by Pheasant startles. Its profound reflections on the place of memory and the memory of place quietly explode before your eyes. The flat landscapes of the prairie spike into a range of flushed and feathered emotion. The writing flies."--Michael Martone, author of Racing in Place

"Man Killed by Pheasant will resonate not only with those of us who have Midwestern roots but with anyone who relishes a walk in the woods or a witty turn of phrase. Savor this book, it's a delight, and don't miss the chapter called `Nuts.'"--Lisa Renstrom, former President, Sierra Club

"A lively, lovely life of place and people, John Price's memoir reveals to all of us nomads the art of how to `come home without ever having left.'"--Brenda Peterson, author Build Me an Ark: A Life with Animals

About the Author

John Price is the author of Not Just Any Land: A Personal and Literary Journey into the American Grasslands. A recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and other recognitions, he has published essays about nature, family, and spirit in many venues including Orion, the Christian Science Monitor, Creative Nonfiction, Isotope, and Best Spiritual Writing 2000. He is a professor of English at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where he teaches nonfiction writing, and a fellow at the Black Earth Institute.

About this edition

• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1609380754
• ISBN 13: 9781609380755
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 278