What We Lost: A Story of My Father's Childhood

What We Lost: A Story of My Father's Childhood

by Dale Peck (Author)

Synopsis

Dale Peck, Sr. grew up extremely poor in rural Long Island in the 1950s, sharing a one-room house with seven brothers and sisters, an abusive mother and an alcoholic father haunted by his past. At 14, he was essentially kidnapped by his father and take to his uncle's farm in upstate New York, where his life changed dramatically. Dale grew strong and healthy from the strenuous work on the farm, and developed a loving relationship with his uncle Wallace. For the first time, he knew contentment. But when Dale's mother demanded that he return, he was forced to choose between his broken family and his uncle and land he had come to love. It was a decision that would determine his future and the legacy he would pass on to his own son. In "What We Lost", a story that startles in its immediacy and lack of sentimentality, Dale Peck refracts his father's past through the prism of his own vivid imagination, forging a bridge between generations and revealing the dark secrets at the heart of family.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 288
Publisher: Granta Books
Published: 19 Feb 2004

ISBN 10: 1862076413
ISBN 13: 9781862076419

Media Reviews
Accomplished novelist Peck's account of his father's horrific 1950s Long Island childhood is reminiscent of Angela's Ashes. Publishers Weekly
Author Bio
Dale Peck was born on Long Island and is the author of the novels Fucking Martin, The Law of Enclosures and Now It's Time to Say Goodbye. His short fiction has appeared in Artforum, BOMB, The London Review of Books, The New Republic, The New York Times, and The Village Voice. Peck also teaches writing and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1995.