Anne hull gay in rural america
Through the GrovesThrough the Groves
a Memoir
Hull, Anne, 1961-Hull, Anne, 1961-
"Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anne Hull grew up in rural Central Florida, barefoot half the time and running through the orange groves her father's family had worked for generations. The ground trembled from the vibrations of bulldozers and jackhammers clearing land for Walt Disney World. "Look now," her father told her as they rode through the mossy landscape together. "It will all be gone." But the real threat was at home, where Hull was pulled between her utopian but self-destructive father and her mother, a glamorous outsider from Brooklyn struggling with her own aspirations. All the while, Hull felt the pressures of girlhood closing in. She dreamed of becoming a traveling salesman who ate in motel coffee shops, accompanied by her baton-twirling babysitter in white boots. As her sexual persona took shape, Hull knew the place she loved would never love her back and began plotting her escape. Here, Hull captures it all-the smells and sounds of a disappearing way of existence, the secret rituals and rhythms of a doomed f
Through the Groves: A Memoir
Hull slowly walks you through her snooze-worthy childhood with a dad that takes her on trips to the main Florida orange fields that he works. When he disappears to alcohol rehab her mom gets a divorce and moves the author and her brother to a few other Florida homes before marrying a real jerk that is one hundred times worse than her dad. That's it. Yawn.
Whole years are skipped, the ending is rushed to skip through Hull's career, which is so inconsequential you'll wonder how she got hired as a newswriter. You might predict some important points about southern racism or alcoholism or divorce or maybe even how Disney took over the orange groves. Or at least something about the writer's lesbianism. But no, there is nothing beyond simplistic tedious information given in a monotonous way.
I possess lived in Florida and walked the streets Hull mentions, including Sebring, Bartow, Lakelan
The Best Books for (and about) Southerners of 2023
Through the Groves, by Anne Hull
“Almost nothing in Florida stays the way it was,” the journalist Anne Hull writes in this lyrical memoir. “It’s bought, sold, paved over, and reimagined in a cycle that never quits.” “Through the Groves might be a tender evocation of convert at the speed of Florida, but it’s one that rewards slow savoring,” writes Jonathan Miles in his review.
Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice: Cocktails from Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks, by Toni Tipton-Martin
Few people relate a food or drink story enjoy the culinary historian and journalist Toni Tipton-Martin does, combining fascinating scholarship with effervescent writing and downright mouthwatering recipes—in this case, for my favorite sort of indulgence: the liquid gentle. Black mixologists and tipple torchbearers find their due here, from pre-Prohibition cocktail king Tom Bulloch to “Louis One-Three” proponent T-Pain. I have big plans for the jerk-spiced Bloody Mary. —Amanda Heckert, executive editor
Silver Alert, by Lee Smith
Silver Alert is classic Lee Smith: laugh-out-lo
Spring 2023 Announcements: Memoirs & Biographies
While this season’s titles focus largely on identity, fans of celebrity memoirs have offerings from Paris Hilton and Elliot Page, among others, to observe forward to.
Top 10
Beyond This Harbor: Adventurous Tales of Heart and Home
Rose Styron. Knopf, June 13 ($32, ISBN 978-0-525-65902-0)
Poet, journalist, and Amnesty International USA cofounder Styron reflects on her marriage to Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist William Styron and their shared literary life.
King: A Life
Jonathan Eig. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, May 16 ($35, ISBN 978-0-374-27929-5)
Journalist and PEN/ESPN Award winner Eig takes an in-depth look at the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and his lasting impact on social justice and American history. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
A Living Remedy: A Memoir
Nicole Chung. Ecco, Apr. 4 ($28.99, ISBN 978-0-063-03161-6)
Chung recounts her father’s death from kidney disease, her mother’s cancer diagnosis, and the complicated bonds between a daughter and her adoptive parents. 75,000-copy announced first printing.
Pageboy: A Memoir
Ellio