| By the Iowa Sea: A Memoir Contributor(s): Blair, Joe (Author) |
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ISBN: 1451636067 ISBN-13: 9781451636062 Publisher: Scribner Book Company OUR PRICE: $18.99 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 2013 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Personal Memoirs - Family & Relationships | Marriage & Long Term Relationships - Family & Relationships | Life Stages - General |
| Dewey: B |
| Physical Information: 0.82" H x 5.56" W x 8.31" (0.55 lbs) 304 pages |
| Themes: - Topical - Family - Cultural Region - Heartland - Cultural Region - Upper Midwest - Geographic Orientation - Iowa |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This vivid memoir about the heartbreaks and ecstasies of marriage, fatherhood, and small-town Midwestern life is "so raw and true you'll gasp" (O, The Oprah Magazine). Heralding the arrival of an original American voice, By the Iowa Sea is a wrenching, unsentimental account of the heartbreaks and ecstasies of marriage, fatherhood, and small-town Midwestern life. After his first cross-country motorcycle trip, Joe Blair believed he had discovered his calling: he would travel; he would never cave in to convention; he would never settle down. Fifteen years later, he finds himself living in Iowa, working as an air-conditioning repairman and spending his free time cleaning gutters, taxiing his children, and contemplating marital infidelity. When the Iowa River floods, transforming the familiar streets of his small town into a terrible and beautiful sea, Joe begins to question the path that led him to this place. Exquisitely observed and lyrically recounted, this is a compelling and often humorous account of an ordinary man's struggle to live an extraordinary life. |
Contributor Bio(s): Blair, Joe: - Joe Blair is a pipefitter who lives in Coralville, Iowa, with his wife and four children. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Iowa Review. |