The Lost Landscape: A
Writer’s Coming of Age
Joyce Carol Oates
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Written
with the raw honesty and poignant insight that were the hallmarks of her
acclaimed bestseller A Widow’s Story, an affecting and observant memoir
of growing up from one of our finest and most beloved literary masters.
The
Lost Landscape
is Joyce Carol Oates’ vivid chronicle of her hardscrabble childhood in rural
western New York State. From memories of her relatives, to those of a charming
bond with a special red hen on her family farm; from her first friendships to
her earliest experiences with death, The Lost Landscape is a powerful evocation
of the romance of childhood, and its indelible influence on the woman and the
writer she would become.
In
this exceptionally candid, moving, and richly reflective account, Oates
explores the world through the eyes of her younger self, an imaginative girl
eager to tell stories about the world and the people she meets. While reading Alice
in Wonderland changed a young Joyce forever and inspired her to view life
as a series of endless adventures, growing up on a farm taught her harsh
lessons about sacrifice, hard work, and loss. With searing detail and an
acutely perceptive eye, Oates renders her memories and emotions with exquisite
precision, transporting us to a forgotten place and time—the lost landscape of
her youth, reminding us of the forgotten landscapes of our own earliest
lives.
(from publisher)
