When We Were the Kennedys: A Memoir from Mexico, Maine
Winner of the 2012 Sarton Memoir Award "Every few years, a memoir comes along that revitalizes the form...With generous, precise, and unsentimental prose, Monica Wood brilliantly achieves this . . . When We Were the Kennedys is a deeply moving gem!"--Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog and Townie 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, Mum and the four deeply connected Wood girls are set adrift. When We Were the Kennedys is the story of how a family, a town, and then a nation mourns and finds the strength to move on. "On her own terms, wry and empathetic, Wood locates the melodies in the aftershock of sudden loss."--Boston Globe "[A] marvel of storytelling, layered and rich. It is, by turns, a chronicle of the renowned paper mill that was both pride and poison to several generations of a town; a tribute to the ethnic stew of immigrant families that grew and prospered there; and an account of one family's grief, love, and resilience."--Maine Sunday Telegram
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
Sweet story that reminded me of how many people grew up in the sixties which seem now like simpler times. . But also many tragedies that people had to endure were much the same. Love and loss but always with faith and hope to move forward.
The author takes you into her town and her words allow you to smell the smells and feel their pain.
The author takes you into her town and her words allow you to smell the smells and feel their pain.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.