Why Do I Love These People?: How to Understand Your Family

by PoBronson (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $3.24

  There's the family you come from, and the family you create. Po Bronson's international bestseller What Should I Do With My Life? inspired a generation. For this remarkable new book, he has travelled the world in search of what it means to be part of family life. Over three years, Po Bronson collected the experiences of more than seven hundred people, from families multi-cultural and multi-generational. Through the nineteen individual stories told here, he begins to decode the enigma of the thing we call 'family'. This book tells of ordinary people who have rebuilt their loves in the face of hardship: an Indian woman flees her abusive father and the marriage into which he forced her; a Baptist in the Ozark mountains tracks down the thirteen-year-old son he abandoned at birth; a father returns to the rice village in China where a precious secret lies hidden in the wall of his childhood home; a Protestant single mother of three and a divorced Catholic man in Belfast evoke the story of Romeo and Juliet. What they have in common, we discover, is resilience. Through storytelling that is both artful and wise, Po Bronson has created a moving and inspiring narrative about the institution which is central to all our lives.

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $3.24

  There's the family you come from, and the family you create. After the enormous success of What Should I Do With My Life? , Po Bronson's new book deals with the crucial subject of families. The book tells of ordinary people, who've had to recreate a life after hardship, much like in What Should I do With My Life? This book tells about: the sole survivor of a plane wreck that killed her family; a father raising his second family, trying to do it right this time, when his 2year old son dies mysteriously; an Indian woman imported to the U.S. in an arranged marriage, now divorced and on her second family; Fiorella, half Italian/half American, who divorces her London husband and wonders whether to move her children to be with family in Rome or New York; It also talks about: a Mexican mother whose son had severe ADHD, and everyone said there was no hope, who raised him to be an honors student graduating this week from Arizona State; a father who never got to admit his paternity (she was married and pretended the baby was from the marriage) who is compelled, powerfully, to find his son, 14 years later, and rescue him from a bad situation; men who were ignored by their fathers, now taking care of their fathers in their final years; and about Amy who breaks off her engagement in Japan, comes home to Manchester, wallows for years until she finally breaks the decade-long silence with her alcoholic father, which somehow frees her to love again. Po Bronson has spoken and corresponded with 1,000 of people to write this remarkable book.