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Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over
As a young girl in a working-class neighborhood of Sydney, Australia, Geraldine Brooks longed to discover the places where history happens and culture comes from, so she enlisted pen pals who offered her a window on adolescence in the Middle East, Europe, and America. Twenty years later Brooks, an award-winning foreign correspondent, embarked on a human treasure hunt to fi...more
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
January 26th 2011
by Anchor
(first published December 29th 1997)
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BoekenTrol
rated it
The first part was nice, but rather hard to plunge into. I would want to compare it to a steam engine that needs time to gain speed. Geraldine describes her youth, the dull (in her eyes) world of Sydney, at the end of the world.
When Geraldine grew older, her world grows and her writing takes the reader along. Finding friends to write to, growing up, go to work and finally going to look for the pals she wrote to in her youth.
The more pages I truned, the more interesting, recognizable...more
When Geraldine grew older, her world grows and her writing takes the reader along. Finding friends to write to, growing up, go to work and finally going to look for the pals she wrote to in her youth.
The more pages I truned, the more interesting, recognizable...more
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I love Geraldine Brooks as an author and I enjoyed her memoir about growing up in Australia and her relationship with her family and her pen pals. It was a quick and mostly interesting read. It is fascinating for me to read an author for years without knowing much about them and discover a book like this that tells her story.
A memoir by Geraldine Brooks, Sydney-born about the time I was born in the USA. Far from a linear autobiography, the book is inspired by the discovery of old pen-pal letters to the adolescent Geraldine in Sydney. She uses the letters to recall her own childhood in Sydney and the yearnings that impelled her to connect with others outside her insular world. As an adult she sets about finding her old pen pals in Israel, France, the US, and even on Sydney's North Shore - which might as well have bee...more
Geraldine Brooks is one of my all-time favorite authors, and I was delighted to find her charming memoir-a book I had somehow missed. My enjoyment was doubtless enhanced by the circumstances in which I read it. I went on vacation with plenty of reading material, but alas, my suitcase full o' books and I failed make contact until the day of my departure-- that's bad. However, Foreign Correspondence was available for download from my public library through Library2Go--that's good! Geraldine kep...more
As a long time pen-pal, I was excited for this one. The storyline was a bit scattershot, vacillating between current and past, with a strange tie in to her father's illness and references to his pen-pals that didnt quite jive when, at the end, the truth all came out. (Her father's illness is the catalyst for her seeking the past it seems, when she finds old letters in the basement).
I have to admit that it seems far fetched that this one girl from working class Sydney would herself bec...more
I have to admit that it seems far fetched that this one girl from working class Sydney would herself bec...more
This is a compelling, wonderful memoir. As an adolescent in suburban Sydney, Australia, Geraldine Brooks began a life-long fascination with other cultures and people across the world. To quench her curiosity and expand her horizons, she corresponded with pen-pals in the Middle East, Europe, and America. Then, twenty years later, after Brooks had worked as a reporter for the The Sydney Morning Herald,, had completed a masters in journalism on scholarship at Columbia University, and had married...more
"But the huge spaces, the deep silences, the vast paddocks free of road rules and stranger danger could never be transported to the black-bitumen blocks of suburban Concord. The great dark mass of movement from country to city is made up of little specks like me: children who don't have any land left to visit, except in their parents' memories."
I have been penpalling since I was 7 years old and am still in touch with my first pen pal. As a shy child growing up on a farm in ...more
I have been penpalling since I was 7 years old and am still in touch with my first pen pal. As a shy child growing up on a farm in ...more
This book is so much more than simply a story about penfriends - Brooks weaves her personal narrative and childhood obsessions in with her story, to show why she sought the particular penpals she wrote to. I enjoyed reading this a lot and it makes me want to pull out the stationery and write to my friends once again - a feeling I haven't had in a while.
Having had domestic and foreign pen pals in my youth, and having read a disproportionate amount of Geraldine Brooks recently, I thought this book would be fascinating. Even the first chapter set up a series of swashbuckling misadventures in foreign lands to find her childhood pen pals. I suppose I was hoping for Holidays in Hell with a defined purpose and uniquely feminine unfortunate situations.
Unfortunately, the majority of the book (Part One) was autobiographical about the author'...more
Unfortunately, the majority of the book (Part One) was autobiographical about the author'...more
Foreign Correspondence – Geraldine Brooks
3 stars
Foreign Correspondence is a memoir of Geraldine Brook’s childhood in Australia. She describes how she sought to expand the horizons of her suburban environment by corresponding with pen pals in several countries. As an adult she reflects on the ways her early letter writing was a factor leading to her career as a journalist and war correspondent. In the last third of the book, Brooks recounts her efforts to meet her former pen pals as...more
3 stars
Foreign Correspondence is a memoir of Geraldine Brook’s childhood in Australia. She describes how she sought to expand the horizons of her suburban environment by corresponding with pen pals in several countries. As an adult she reflects on the ways her early letter writing was a factor leading to her career as a journalist and war correspondent. In the last third of the book, Brooks recounts her efforts to meet her former pen pals as...more
Sarah
rated it
I would have liked more details on her transition to being a war correspondent although the pen pal theme resonated with me and my desire as a young girl to travel the world.
Such a meaty book for me, since I've been corresponding with friends for decades! Brooks follows up on the lives of her childhood/adolescent penfriends. One, a French woman, has never lived outside of her village, and has never been to Paris despite living an hour's drive away -- astonishing to have so little curiosity about the world! Another became a star in the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" film. So interesting. The only thing missing - and this wasn't the point of the book, so it was...more
This was an amazing tale of growing up as an Australian baby boomer, seeing the world through the eyes of her pen pals. I enjoyed her descriptions of how Australia changed during the 60's and 70's. How it grew from an English outpost to a country of its own, with pride in its culture, art and literature.
Brooks is a vivid narrator. As she travels to the homes of her childhood pen pals, you're in the vehicle with her. You feel her anticipation as she nears each one, experience her ...more
Brooks is a vivid narrator. As she travels to the homes of her childhood pen pals, you're in the vehicle with her. You feel her anticipation as she nears each one, experience her ...more
Enjoyable memoir & a relatively easy read. I don't mean that dismissively, I just mean that for those of us who get our reading in at night prior to sleep, this is an easy book to put down and pick up again, without needing to back-track. Chapters are short, well-defined and paint vivid mental pictures.
I really liked how Brooks assembled her book--with the first half comprised of childhood memories that trace a young girl's coming of age in Australia--yet all through the looking glass ...more
I really liked how Brooks assembled her book--with the first half comprised of childhood memories that trace a young girl's coming of age in Australia--yet all through the looking glass ...more
When Geraldine Brooks' father was dying, she returned home to Australia and started sorting through his many papers. In one pile of papers she found the letters that she had received from her childhood pen pals, who were located in various parts of the world. What follows is the story of her coming of age in Australia in the 1960's and 1970's, with her pen pals' stories woven througout. Brooks, an acclaimed journalist, actually tracked down these pen pals and we get to find out about their ad...more
Patty
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2009,
autobiography,
current-affairs,
family,
history,
international-relations,
israel,
memoir,
middle-east,
non-fiction,
travel,
women-writers,
writing,
australia,
pen-pals
I picked this book up because I enjoyed the novel I read by Brooks and I wanted to know more about her. By the title, I thought I was going to learn about her experiences as a Foreign Correspondent.
What I got was better, in my opinion. I learned about her childhood, her pen pals and how she got to where she is now.
I had a couple of pen pals as I grew up. I can't imagine finding them and if I did, the stories would not be this good.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. ...more
What I got was better, in my opinion. I learned about her childhood, her pen pals and how she got to where she is now.
I had a couple of pen pals as I grew up. I can't imagine finding them and if I did, the stories would not be this good.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. ...more
Inspired by her father's letter writing and longing for a glimpse of the world outside her hometown, young Geraldine Brooks sent away for pen friends around the world. Many years later, she decided to track down these friends.
Brooks deftly shows parallels between her own adolescence and the development of a national Australian identity, while comparing the cultural strictures of her own life with those of her friends in other countries.
I enjoyed this look into a world o...more
Brooks deftly shows parallels between her own adolescence and the development of a national Australian identity, while comparing the cultural strictures of her own life with those of her friends in other countries.
I enjoyed this look into a world o...more
I read "March" about a year ago and loved it, so when I saw this book in a thrift store for a dollar, I grabbed it.
This was a quick, matter-of-fact memoir that wasn't groundbreaking, but an enjoyable read nonetheless. Her "where are they now?" format was an interesting way to write about her childhood pen pals, but at times it felt very contrived. I suppose I would have liked to hear less about the pen pals and more about Brooks.
Also, Brooks grew up ...more
This was a quick, matter-of-fact memoir that wasn't groundbreaking, but an enjoyable read nonetheless. Her "where are they now?" format was an interesting way to write about her childhood pen pals, but at times it felt very contrived. I suppose I would have liked to hear less about the pen pals and more about Brooks.
Also, Brooks grew up ...more
This book made me think about my penpals from childhood. I had a penpal from France when I was 13. Even though it was only 17 years ago, I can still remember how far away and unknowable she seemed. I still remember the graphing paper she wrote on and her (what I now know to be) distinctly French handwriting. I wonder if this book will hold up. It seems like the world has grown so much smaller since the internet became what it now is. I don't think people all that much younger than I am can relat...more
I'm not sure what I was exactly expecting from this book - other than that I expected it to be good because I thoroughly enjoyed two of her other books - Year of Wonders, and People of the Book. I think I was envisioning more of a Guernsey style book - that were her actual letters to and from penpals as a child living in Australia.
In reality, the book was more of a clever memoir. She spent nearly the first half of her book discussing her childhood, where she enjoyed dedicated passions...more
In reality, the book was more of a clever memoir. She spent nearly the first half of her book discussing her childhood, where she enjoyed dedicated passions...more
On one level this is yet another baby boomer memoir about growing up in the suburbs - but I'm a baby boomer myself - and I grew up in a suburb.
We baby boomers are The Greatest Generation (of Navel Gazers), and each memoir has a twist that makes it interesting. I enjoyed reading about growing up Australia, and about the quest (pre-Facebook) for finding where they are now.
The book reads easily, and is never dull - but at times it felt more written as she thought it than ...more
We baby boomers are The Greatest Generation (of Navel Gazers), and each memoir has a twist that makes it interesting. I enjoyed reading about growing up Australia, and about the quest (pre-Facebook) for finding where they are now.
The book reads easily, and is never dull - but at times it felt more written as she thought it than ...more
Geraldine Brooks has had a far more interesting life than I have had, and she showcases her world journeys through her family and personal history. Provides some solid historical background, interspersed with Geraldine's memories and experiences - so I'd highly recommend it to people who enjoy memoirs; history; letter-writing. I enjoy all of the above, so it was perfect for me!
This a favorite biography. Brooks relates the history of Australia with her family and her own life interspersed with the letters she and her pen pals from around the world wrote. As a child she acquired letters from disparate cultures and equally young people that reflect their regions and cultural biases without the attitudes adults so often have. The naive outlook of children is replaced by an adult looking to understand so Brooks sets out to find the pen pals of her youth and find out more a...more
This book does not get a lot of press compared to Brook's other books. Underrated!! I found it fun, insightful, deep, yet entertaining. As a woman who has lived on 4 different continents (me!), it really has a distinctive "worldy flavor" to it as Brooks insightfully peers into other cultures.
I LOVE it when I find a hidden gem such as this! Highly recommend!
I LOVE it when I find a hidden gem such as this! Highly recommend!
Since in my time I had 17 pen pals, I wanted to read this memoir by the author of March, which I recently reread. In Foreign Correspondents, Brooks writes about growing up in Sydney, Australia and how she wrote to pen pals in an effort to reach out to the world she wanted to see. It's well-written and worth reading, a quick read (I read it in one day).
This book is essentially a memoir of Brooks' childhood in Australia and then catches up with her pen pals at about age 40. The book was always interesting, frequently funny, and often very moving. It was very interesting to see how her pen pals lives had played out and how different they were than what Brooks had imagined. A very worthwhile, quick read.
This was a delightful way for Ms. Brooks to write a family memoir that incorporated material saved from her childhood, namely the letters from her pen pals. I especially liked the first part of her book with its descriptions of growing up in an Australia only just emerging from colonialism.
I really enjoyed this--reading the first part with Brooks growing up in Sydney, dreaming of an exciting bigger world, and then the second part in which she meets her pen pals about 25 years later, finds out who they really are (as opposed to who she made them out to be when she was young and corresponding with them). The chapter in Israel fascinated me--
A very enjoyable story that is presented in a unique format. I gained a lot of insight into a time and a place where I've never been. The premise appealed to me since I am someone who also looks back at relationships and is loathe to get go of them.
I actually don't know why this book wasn't in my reviews yet as I already read it last September and loved it so much!
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Geraldine Brooks (born 1955) is an Pulitzer Prize-winning, Australian-American journalist and author.
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