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4th out of 9 books
—
7 voters
Ghostbread
by
Sonja Livingston (Goodreads Author)
�When you eat soup every night, thoughts of bread get you through.” Ghostbread makes real for us the shifting homes and unending hunger that shape the life of a girl growing up in poverty during the 1970s.One of seven children brought up by a single mother, Sonja Livingston was raised in areas of western New York that remain relatively hidden from the rest of America. From...more
Hardcover, 248 pages
Published
November 1st 2009
by University of Georgia Press
(first published 2009)
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Writing about a deprived childhood is tricky. Too stoic, and the reader fails to engage. Too emotional and the reader smells self-pity. So the fact that Sonja Livingston is able to punch right through the shame and ache and hunger to the truth of such a childhood marks her as an emotionally smart and technically gifted writer. Livingston is even-handed in her depictions. She celebrates the good times, the strengths of her family members, and turns an observant child's eye on the hard times. For...more
I won this book through a goodreads giveaway. This is a very short autobiographical memoir by Sonja Livingston. As one of seven children Sonja knows what is to be hungry. This look at poverty is in many ways not a typical one. Sonja lived in New York - yet it isn't quite the inner-city poverty most people probably think of when the imagine being poor. Of course that ins't saying this book doesn't have value, as it clearly does. Livingston writes simply. Her sentences and chapters are direct and...more
Sonja Livingston's Ghostbread bears witness to the experience of childhood poverty and seeks, in its understated epilogue, to make sense of why some may escape while others do not.
This memoir is divided up into 122 very short chapters, each able to hold its own as a bit of flash nonfiction. What I enjoy most about this memoir is the poetic grace of Livingston's phrases and descriptions. You can turn to any page, pick any random sentence, and discover something to admire. For example, Livingston...more
This memoir is divided up into 122 very short chapters, each able to hold its own as a bit of flash nonfiction. What I enjoy most about this memoir is the poetic grace of Livingston's phrases and descriptions. You can turn to any page, pick any random sentence, and discover something to admire. For example, Livingston...more
I breathe easier too when I finally get to know more about the author's father (her single mother withheld the information about each child's father until they turn 14 years old--yes, each child has a different father). I'm cheering too and letting the light pour in when the author does indeed graduate from high school. I so appreciate all Ms Livingston's well-chosen words about how she almost chose differently. For example: "...though I'd shaken my head from side to side and tsked those girls a...more
In the interest of full disclosure, let me say that I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
And that I am not a very excellent review-writer!
That said, I loved it. Not because I won it, but because it was...well, I still haven't been able to think of a word! It was definitely different from what I expected and not my normal reading fare, at least by style, but it was still awesome. In a way, it reminded me of The Glass Castle, but again, completely different in writing style. Hardly any chapters...more
And that I am not a very excellent review-writer!
That said, I loved it. Not because I won it, but because it was...well, I still haven't been able to think of a word! It was definitely different from what I expected and not my normal reading fare, at least by style, but it was still awesome. In a way, it reminded me of The Glass Castle, but again, completely different in writing style. Hardly any chapters...more
A moving, poetic, entirely unsentimental evocation of growing up in Western New York. Livingston's depiction of poverty and Roman Catholicism told through the eyes of an intelligent and independent young girl makes your heart ache. This memoir, divided into chapters (and as another goodreads reviewer stated, each can be read on its own) depicts growing up in the slums of Rochester, New York and on the Tonawanda Indian reservation. Amid the lack of food and security, Livingston also describes wit...more
I'm not given to 5 star ratings easily. They have to be earned and this young author, Sonja Livingston, has a way of writing that simply blows me away. Her style is clear and crisp - straight to the point. Yes, Ghostbread is non-fiction, so you could say this is a memoir. But it's also short stories - a mechanism Livingston uses brilliantly to present her childhood. And let me say now this is not a whining, self-pitying attempt at catharsis. Livingston's use of language is powerful and direct. S...more
I don't often read memoirs, preferring an escape from past and present instead. I read reviews of ghostbread by Sonja Livingston, a local author who inscribed this poignant work of non fiction to all the girls of Rochester, Buffalo, and places in between. Growing up in Rochester, Spencerport, Brockport and currently LeRoy, I was intrigued. The author barely graduated from East High, also my Mother's alma mater. I was not only transported to places and time periods I could relate to, but also to...more
I wanted to love this AWP award-winning book and was at first entranced with the promise of an examination of a childhood of poverty in short, concise chapters that ended on a strong image, like a prose poem. But then the book failed at self-contemplation, just plodded on through the houses and people trailing in and out of the author's life, people never drawn in more than just a sketch. The book then ends with her graduation from high school and transferring to her next, more educated life. If...more
This book slowly built into a powerful, lyrical story of surviving poverty. It's structures as a series of short lyrical vignettes (122 numbered "chapters"), which are like islands you hop to as you move forward. It's almost pointillist in its structure, which means that its power hits you when you stand back from it. This happened as I became more and more engaged with the writing, and later, with moments of reflection (rather than just lyrical memory-vignettes found early in the book). The sto...more
Living in and through poverty intruigues me. I often wonder how some of my students manage to care about what I teach when I know they are living through a hell I cannot imagine. This woman's story is so poignant because she grew up in Rochester, in a neighborhood I am familiar with and also attended the church where my kids were baptised. Although I do not know her, I find myself craving more information about her and her family. This is not fiction...it is a memoir and I highly recommend it.
Local writer. Awesome unique style. Great story. Glimpse of a lifestyle that's all around me, yet invisible in many ways. The story of white poverty, and single women raising too many kids without fathers around. Sonja Livingston draws you into her world, like ripping off a bandage, with no apologies, no regret and with no concern for any judgment the reader might have. She was absolutely correct in believing it was a story we all need to hear and appreciate.
Sonja Livingston wrote a very lyrical memoir of her childhood years in this book. The style of the book has very short snippets of things that had happened in her life. This made the book read very quickly. The stories she has to tell are very interesting and telling of them truly brings everything to life in this book. I could fully imagine the times, settings, feelings, and even aromas that would be in the air. Sonja did an excellent job with her descriptions that every sense is described and...more
this was a great book. it's classified non-fiction and is autobiographical. each of the 122 chapters are vignettes of the author's life growing up poor with a questionably stable mother. i chose it because of its proximity to where i live. it brings home how much pain and suffering pass our notice every day.
sonja is an excellent writer. as you read these written photographs on her life, you feel and see thru her senses.
sonja is an excellent writer. as you read these written photographs on her life, you feel and see thru her senses.
I really enjoyed this book--the writing is lovely and Livingston does a wonderful job creating scene and character. At the same time, I kept hoping for more connective tissue between the individual scenes, as well as more reflection on what she, as an adult, makes of her childhood now. To me there was something missing from the book that I usually look for in memoir.
This book was called "lyrical" in its copy...I couldn't agree more. The author used a brilliant stylistic approach (small snippets as "mini-chapters" to unveil a story of a young girl's trek through poverty in Western New York in the '70s. The story was compelling and Livingston manages to convey a philosophical wisdom that transcends the words on the page. I loved this book.
I heard Sonja read at AWP (she was the non-fiction winner) and it was incredible. Her story is stunning, but it's the way that she tells it, in tantalizing, terrifying bites, like some kind of sweet bookish torture, that blew me away. All that yearning and loss and beauty and horror all mixed up together....mmmm...the very best kind of writing.
This book reminds me of Glass Castles and a little of The Color of water. A young girl shares what her life was like growing up Catholic, with a single mother, 6 siblings,poor and no father(s). It made me think of my own childhood hurts and insecurities. Not that I had shared anything similar except feeling poor and needy for various reasons. I guess we could all write a chapter or two in the Book of Hard Knocks.
I really enjoyed this book! I'm from Rochester, where this story takes place, and actually read this for a class. The writing is beautiful and the stories Sonja tells are honest, relatable, and heartfelt. She discusses poverty without ever seeking or asking for sympathy. I'm a huge fan of memoirs, and this was a great one.
This book tells with eloquent prose a tale of poverty, neglect and somehow magic of childhood that brings the author to survival and ultimately success. It's evocative where it needs to be and is told with a gentle touch that makes all the more real the stunning success of survival despite crushing circumstances.
This is the sort of book where both the unusual tale and the well-crafted telling demand that the reader sit down from start to finish, and then for me, spurred on the strength of the voice, I accept as if some kind of invitation to go through a checklist of my own life, and how I might want to recount it.
Mar 02, 2010
Tlc
marked it as to-read
This book intrigues me since I, too, grew up being hungry as a child in the 1970's. I'm hoping the positive attitude of the things learned in poverty and hunger will overcome the despondency of childhood feelings of invisibility and unimportance! (Note, I ALWAYS donate to food drives - no matter what.)
Read it in less than 24 hours... definitely felt the connection to Rochester, East and Corpus Christi... and, wanting to leave Western NY. I loved the way in which it was written as well. The book is nonfiction but, while reading, the distinction between fiction and non fiction seems to blur.
My cousin, who shares the same hometown as the author, shared this special book with me. IT was heartbreaking but vivid and candid, and explored and illuminated the life of a young girl living through tough times. beautifully written short chapters that could stand alone as essays.
Oct 20, 2010
Debra
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
won-from-firstreads,
firstreads-read
This was a firstreads book. The author was one of seven children who grew up in poverty in western New York. I really like the way Sonja Livingston tells the story. Each chapter is a memory of her childhood so the book gives us an overall feel of what it was like for her growing up. It's easy to understand why people who are born in poverty usually stay trapped in a cycle of poverty. Sonja struggles to break out of this cycle and shows that she was able to make a better life for herself despite...more
Aug 08, 2011
Bettie Lindley
added it
A well written memoir by a young woman from Rochester who in some quarters would be described as "white trash." The chapters are short and almost vignettes. Imagine my surprise when she described three teachers at East High School and I knew exactly who they were!
In the spirit of Jeanette Walls, this was an incredible read. Livingston captured her experience in one of the most powerfully raw memoirs I've read in a long time. This was incredible. I don't want to give anything away. Read it.
This book was simple, but it was moving. Some times it is difficult to see that poverty is right where you live. Or you know it is there but don't know anything about it or ignore it. It was eye-opening. Our book club liked it.
Some really lovely writing here, though the book as a whole hung on vignettes rather than coalescing into a greater narrative. It was structured that way (100+ short sections), but needed something a big more defining in the end.
Memoirs are my favorite reads, and Ghostbread is easily going to be added as a favorite! Sonja Livingston pours her heart and soul into her story of growing up during the 1970's in the Rochester, NY area. Living with her single mother and siblings, life was tough. The family was poverty-stricken and times were hard. There was always church in Sonja's life...a bright spot for her to meet friends and neighbors. It took me back to a time when you knew everyone on your block, all of the neighborhood...more
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| Win 1 of 3 copies of Ghostbread by Sonja Livingston | 1 | 8 | Jun 25, 2010 01:27pm |
Sonja Livingston's memoir, GHOSTBREAD, won the AWP Award in Nonfiction. Her writing has earned a NYFA Fellowship, an Iowa Award, and Pushcart Prize nomination and appears in several textbooks on writing, as well as many journals, including The Iowa Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, AGNI and others. She holds an M.S. Ed. from SUNY Brockport and an MFA from the University o...more
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“I was hers in ways that those with loyalties of convenience cannot fathom. I loved her beyond words and clothes, and yes beyond even pain. The strangest of things is the way the hungry always return to the very same hand. The hand they know. The one that cannot give.”
—
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Jun 25, 2010 01:29pm