Rain or Shine: Fam AF

The author was a schoolmate of mine from Montana. I sent the book to another classmate knowing she would enjoy it as much as I did. She loved it! Pat

After reading her wickedly satiric THE SERIAL, I decided to spend some time with some other authors before diving into this. This one's the Pulitzer nominee, so I assumed something even more hilarious. Instead, I got reality. Still wickedly witty, but factual rather than satiric. (Same thing? Maybe. Don't make me think too hard or I'll never finish this review.) It's a very different animal, showing us that McFadden has quite a range. She lived a very interesting life with a very interesting family, and here it is. She's observant, insightful, clever, and well worth reading. I've read many memoirs and enjoyed them while I read them, then forgot them a week or a month later. Heck, I can't remember most of my own memoir these days. But this is a memoir I will remember. It's a great book. That's all I have to say. If you want to know why, read some other review. I know they're out there. I'm just agreeing with them, okay? It's what I do.

It's about time this book was back in print. In my opinion, "Rain or Shine" is the gold standard for memoir writing. I read it back in 1986 when it was first published (and a finalist for the Pulitzer that year) and reread it again just recently. Even though I have little or no interest in rodeo announcing, trick-riding, or the old (or even recent) west, I have an addiction to good writing. "Rain or Shine" is so luminous (and humorous) that it immediately captured my attention. And held it. This one's a sleeper. It would make a great movie. It reads like one already. The story of Ms. McFadden's parents, Cy and Pat Taillon, comes to life immediately and everything they do seems fraught with such passion and abandon that we know, before they even realize it themselves, that this couple will not end up in rockers at 80 talking about the good old days together. He's a rodeo announcer who likes a drink. She sublimates her own ambitions and becomes a trick rider to be with him. Early on, we are told by members of the supporting cast (chiefly, Pat's sister, Ila Mae, and Cy's best friend, Roy) that Cy and Pat Taillon are starcrossed and mismatched, recklessly piloting their Packard down Satan's driveway and taking their vulnerable little girl with them. However, we don't quite see it that way, as young Cyra is always in her backseat bedroom (they live in the car on the road), humorously showing us that there may be a little envy involved as Cy rises to the top of his game early and stays there. Slowly, the family begins to enjoy some measure of success. Inevitably, setbacks occur. The couple's eventual flameout is a shock, even though it isn't particularly unexpected or spectacular. One day, Cy Taillon simply unhooks his Packard from the family trailer and drives away, leaving mother and daughter sitting by the side of the road. As the Packard disappears on the horizon, Cy's "best friend" Roy materializes and hooks the trailer up to his car, taking both mother and daughter home with him. Roy has an ulterior motive. He and Ila Mae have been diligently attempting to wrest Pat away from Cy so that Roy can have Pat for himself. It works -- Pat's emotions and security are in disarray. She needs a steady hand, something concrete in her life. Cyra, on the other hand, is never fooled by Roy's betrayal and ulterior motive. She's astonished at how easily he stuck the knife in her father's back. Soon Roy and Pat are married and thus begins one of the most hilarious sections of this memoir -- life with Roy. In a reversal of lifestyles, young Cyra must now adhere to a strange set of rules and regulations intended to foster good health, including the proviso that each bite of food is to be chewed exactly 28 times "to get all the goodness out of it." It is clear, in her shaky state, that Pat has settled for Roy, who is about as boring as he is devious. But is Cy completely out of the picture? Ila Mae and Roy's plan to snatch Pat away and sav

Yay! Cyra McFadden's memoir is back in print! I had snapped up all the used hardcover editions I could find a few years ago when I heard it was out of print. But why?Because this slim memoir is the kind of story that unfolds in the reader's head like a gorgeously-shot film, one that's perfectly cast and shot on locations that evoke the internal emotions of its characters to stunning effect. Cher once actually owned the movie rights on this book, then I heard nothing more of it. Her instincts were right on. If there was ever a book that cried out to be adapted into a film or a play, this is it.McFadden grew up in the West, the daughter of Cy Taillon, a legendary rodeo announcer and his wife Pat, a one-time showgirl with charisma enough to match her husband's. Cyra grew up a little cowgirl gypsy, as the family roamed the Western rodeo circuit together by car in the 1940's.McFadden's eye for detail in regard to smells, sounds and her childhood consciousness is extaordinary, as is her realistic depiction of her parents' tumultuous love for one another that is the basis of the story and McFadden's adult questing. The smell of cattle, the sonorous voice of her father, the taste of all-hours road food and the touch of sequins on her mother's old costume gowns....this book is filled with details that will linger in your imagination for years. Old family photos accompany the text and they are intimate and haunting. All is told in a voice that is unsparingly honest, as well as sympathetic. McFadden cherishes her vagabond childhood and gives us a technicolor look at the richness of its place and time.Buy this book if you love a well-written memoir. Or buy it because you love the West. Buy it because you love cowboys and showgirls and all-night trips down dusty highways. But buy it, and many copies of it, because you will want your friends to experience its cinematic poignancy after the movie in your head ends.Obviously, one of my all-time favorite pieces of writing. Woefully under-read and underappreciated, I encourage English teachers to consider this in a curricula on memoir writing. It is lasting stuff.

An honest look a fractured family in the American West of the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, this book is about family life, good and bad, in the the settings of rent houses, bars, Cadillacs, motel rooms and rodeo arenas. There is love, estrangement and attempted reconciliation. It's moving as well as interesting, and I'd love for Cyra to write more.