All Over But the Shoutin'

I was born and raised in California. I feel no affinity for the South. In fact, I find it culturally foreign. This book is rooted in the South, a memoir written by an Alabama native about growing up dirt poor, and the road to becoming an accomplished reporter, finally attending Harvard and later winning the Pulitzer Prize while working for the New York Times. But in his heart, he never left the South, nor did he ever disown his devoted, toothless "mama". A man exposed to religion and respecting it, he never appropriated it for himself. Yet he exemplified the commandment to honor his mother. (His father is another matter!) From the very first page this book drew me in. Rick Bragg writes in simple, direct sentences, the unobtrusive words revealing, rather than competing with, the impact of the scene. Instead of writing a mere regional book, he writes a universal book, tying us together by our shared emotions and experiences. He sensitively portrays not northern experiences or southern experiences, but human experiences.

I stumbled across this book at the University of the South where it was required freshman reading. Being a northerner of southern lineage I decided to give it a try and was very impressed. Bragg writes wonderfully about his mother and his experiences growing up in the South.

The first time was when I read Mr. Bragg's other book "Somebody Told Me". In that collection of articles he had written I came across the following sentence,"This is a place where grandmothers hold babies on their laps under the stars and whisper in their ears that the lights in the sky are holes in the floor of heaven."It is very difficult to say something unique or clever about the way he writes. He would dismiss any suggestion that he "brings" something to a story. Even the professional reviewers have resorted to linking his name with some of the greatest writers who have taken the time to share their craft with us; Melville, Faulkner, and those who brought us "Huck Finn" and "Holden Caulfield", and Mr. Bragg is still a young writer who has scores of books to come.The only thing this man lacks is pretense, or if you prefer, false pride. Someone said he had "lent dignity" to the people in one of his stories, he felt that comment was wrong and said "All I did was write what was there", and another time, "It wasn't that I had gotten it right-God knows I mess up a lot-but that I had gotten it true".I believe he writes for the individuals and groups he writes about. We are just the lucky witnesses, the beneficiaries of one man's amazing talent.Reading cannot get better than this.

All Over But The Shoutin' is Rick Bragg's gift to his mother. Bragg, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for The New York Times, has written a powerful memoir of growing up poor in the South. At the center of his story is his mother, raising her three sons to manhood.A deep understanding of the South is woven throughout the book, along with an appreciation of this region's poorest people. Rick Bragg was raised in a family led by his mother after she finally broke away from his alcoholic and violent father. Vivid memories crowd the book's pages as Bragg writes of his upbringing: surrounded by an extended family, food, hard work, and racism. There were several different cultures in the South of Bragg's youth. Whites belonged to classes, with corresponding differences in education and expectations. Bragg got only a few glimpses into the lives of the wealthy South. His upbringing was among the poorest of the poor. In his culture, men were expected to fight hard and dirty when insulted. Drinking and getting drunk was part of male gatherings. Salvation was found in religion, which surrounded people on the radio, in church, and when family got together. Women cooked huge meals that took hours to prepare. They were responsible for doing what needed to be done to hold a family together and raise the children.What Bragg carries from his childhood are a fierce and protective love of the South, an affiliation with those who live in poverty wherever he finds them, and a hatred of those who grew up privileged and feel superior because of it. He also carries into adulthood a fear of fatherhood: a concern that he will become as his father was. This causes the breakup of his marriage and leaves Bragg in mid-life looking for something that he feels is missing. Finally, Bragg carries with him a sense of personal inferiority: that he is unworthy of his career, because of his lack of education. Many of these themes come together in the year that he spends as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He is surprised at his selection for this program. He is angered by ignorance and "petrified opinions" about the South he finds there. Yet, he realizes during this year that "you can't go through life not liking people because they didn't have to work as hard or come as far as you did." Bragg seems to have come to terms with his past and present when he receives the Pulitzer Prize. This confirms his worth as a journalist and his mother's success in raising him.It was at the funeral of his grandmother that Bragg realized the gradual and inexorable ending of the world he grew up in and determined to write this memoir to his mother, while she is still alive to read it. It is a powerful and haunting tribute to her dignity and hard work.

My priest is from Alabama and kept asking me if I'd read this book. The first thing I did after I finished it was to email him so we could get together to discuss it. Then I wrote ten pages about it in my journal, and next I called my sister to tell her about it and talk to her about our own family. Rick Bragg is a gifted writer who does "talk Southern," and I understood every word. My mother's people were sharecroppers during the Depression. I know how hard she tried to raise us out of her own poverty, what she sacrificed, and how well she succeeded. I saw in my own history both those things of which I am most proud and those things of which I am most ashamed. He softened my shame and strengthened the pride, as I'm sure he did his own. Naming the demons frees us, and I thank him for helping me to name a few of mine. I'll recommend this book to everyone, including my high school journalism and American literature students. It touched me in a deep place.