If Only You People Could Follow Directions: A Memoir - Softcover

Nelson, Jessica Hendry

  • 3.65 out of 5 stars
    411 ratings by Goodreads
 
9781619024670: If Only You People Could Follow Directions: A Memoir
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1619024675 ISBN 13: 9781619024670
Publisher: Catapult, 2015

Synopsis

If Only You People Could Follow Directions is a spellbinding debut by Jessica Hendry Nelson. In linked autobiographical essays, Nelson has reimagined the memoir with her thoroughly original voice, fearless writing, and hypnotic storytelling. At its center, the book is the story of three people: Nelson's mother Susan, her brother Eric, and Jessica herself. These three characters are deeply bound to one another, not just by the usual ties of blood and family, but also by a mother's drive to keep her children safe in the midst of chaos. The book begins with Nelson's childhood in the suburbs of Philadelphia and chronicles her father's addiction and death, her brother's battle with drugs and mental illness, her own efforts to find and maintain stability, and her mother's exquisite power, grief, and self-destruction in the face of such a complicated family dynamic. Each chapter in the book contends with a different relationship--friends, lovers, and strangers are all play--but at its heart the book is about family, the ties that bind and enrich and betray us, and how one young woman sought to survive and rise above her surroundings.

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About the Author

Jessica Hendry Nelson earned a BA in English from the University of New Hampshire and an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in The Threepenny Review, The Carolina Quarterly, Crab Orchard Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Drunken Boat, Alligator Juniper, Fringe, and PANK. A chapter from this book, "The Whitest Winter Light," is a Notable essay in Best American Essays 2012. Currently, she is the senior nonfiction editor of The Fiddleback, a literary journal, and lives in Colchester, VT.

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Publisher
Catapult
Publication date
2015
Language
English
ISBN 10 
1619024675
ISBN 13 
9781619024670
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
256
Rating
  • 3.65 out of 5 stars
    411 ratings by Goodreads

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781619022331: If Only You People Could Follow Directions: A Memoir

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  1619022338 ISBN 13:  9781619022331
Publisher: Counterpoint, 2013
Hardcover