The Force of Things: A Marriage in War and Peace
Chances are, everyone’s family history is fascinating—chock-full of tragedy, romance, and astonishing secrets of every variety. All it really takes is a keen observer of human behavior, an avid researcher, and a memoirist of considerable talent like nonfiction author (Excellent Cadavers,1995, and The Future of the Past, 2002) and New Yorker contributor Stille to forcefully communicate the unique trajectory of an individual clan. Stille reaches back into his family’s past in order to tell the story of his parents and of his own literary and cultural heritage. When his mother, a married midwestern WASP, met his father, a Russian-born, Italian-bred Jewish journalist, at a New York cocktail party in 1948, sparks flew, and another incredible family journey, mired in the past but pointing toward the future, began. Stille places his parents’ often tumultuous relationship into multiple contexts, examining it intimately from personal, historical, and cultural perspectives. --Margaret Flanagan