A wake for the living: A family chronicle

by Andrew Lytle

Chronicle of Southern history encapsulated by that of the famous writer's Tennessee family.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction

270 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Andrew Nelson Lytle (December 26, 1902 – December 12, 1995) was an American novelist, dramatist, essayist and professor of literature. He was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and early in his life planned to be an actor and playwright. He studied acting at Yale University and performed on Broadway when he was in his 20s.
Unlike other Southern intellectuals who left the region never to return, Lytle went home after the death of a kinsman. Except for brief sojourns elsewhere, he remained in the South for the rest of his life.
(wikipedia)

Reviews

[Drew Norwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If you do not know who you are or where you come from, you will find yourself at a disadvantage. The ordered slums of suburbia are made for the confusion of the spirit...For the profound stress between the union that is flesh and the spirit, they have been forced to exchange for appetites. Each business promotion uproots the family. Children become wayfarers. Few are given any vision of the Divine. They perforce become secular men, half men, who inhabit what is left of Christendom...If we dismiss the past as dead and not as a country of the living which our eyes are unable to see, as we cannot see a foreign country but know it is there, then we are likely to become servile. Living as we will be in a lesser sense of ourselves, lacking that fuller knowledge which only the living past can give..."

[Dave Peticolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lytle's graceful and loving portrait of the lost world of his youth, the Old South. I found it a bit dry in parts, but mostly enjoyable. Basically a lyrical variation of one of history's oldest laments: The World Is Different Than When I Was Young. To which I had my usual reaction: the past is interesting to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. I hope that when I am near the end of my life I will have the courage to see the present and future with kinder eyes.

[Matt Carpenter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an enjoyable history of Mr. Lytle's family, going back to the American War for Independence down to the present. It's like listening to an intelligent, older family member tell stories of growing up. Mr. Lytle is a good writer with a knack for telling enough without becoming too wordy.