
Mortality, with Friends
Fleda Brown(Author)
Wayne State University Press
Published on 30. September 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-0-8143-4874-1 (ISBN)
Description
Mortality, With Friends is a collection of lyrical essays from Fleda Brown, a writer and caretaker, of her father and sometimes her husband, who lives with the nagging uneasiness that her cancer could return. Memoir in feel, the book muses on the nature of art, of sculpture, of the loss of bees and trees, the end of marriages, and among other things, the loss of hearing and of life itself. Containing twenty-two essays, Mortality, With Friends follows the cascade of loss with the author's imminent joy in opening a path to track her own growing awareness and wisdom. In ""Donna,"" Brown examines a childhood friendship and questions the roles we need to play in each other's lives to shape who we might become. In ""Native Bees,"" Brown expertly weaves together the threads of a difficult family tradition intended to incite happiness with the harsh reality of current events. In ""Fingernails, Toenails,"" she marvels at the attention and suffering that accompanies caring for our aging bodies. In ""Mortality, with Friends,"" Brown dives into the practical and stupefying response to her own cancer and survival. In ""2019: Becoming Mrs. Ramsay,"" she remembers the ghosts of her family and the strident image of herself, positioned in front of her Northern Michigan cottage. Comparable to Lia Purpura's essays in their density and poetics, Brown's intent is to look closely, to stay with the moment and the image. Readers with a fondness for memoir and appreciation for art will be dazzled by the beauty of this collection.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Detroit, MI
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
5 b&w images
Dimensions
Height: 215 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
284 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8143-4874-1 (9780814348741)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Fleda Brown
Mortality, with Friends
E-Book
09/2021
Wayne State University Press
€23.49
Available for download
Person
Fleda Brown's tenth collection of poems, Flying through a Hole in the Storm, won the Hollis Summers Prize from Ohio University Press. Earlier poems can be found in The Woods Are on Fire: New & Selected Poems, chosen by Ted Kooser for the University of Nebraska poetry series. She is professor emerita at the University of Delaware and was poet laureate of Delaware from 2001 to 2007.