{"product_id":"light-while-there-is-light-an-american-history-9798896230366","title":"Light While There Is Light: An American History","description":"\u003cb\u003eA moving poetic memoir about a family on the fringes of religion and society, this unforgettable story about a mother's destructive involvement with Christian fundamentalism pulls the curtain back on the darker side of American religious experience.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eKeith Waldrop's account of his mid-twentieth-century Midwestern upbringing opens a window on a uniquely American landscape of desolation and desire. Waldrop's mother, central to the book, was a devout Christian, consumed with the question of just what a Christian was. Divorced from his father--a railway man, a Mason, coming and going with the Santa Fe railroad, then gone--she moves from place to place and from sect to sect, suffering migraines and speaking in tongues, teaching piano, and sinking ever deeper into apocalyptic reveries about tribulations lying in store and the advent of Christ's return. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThen there are Waldrop's siblings: his sister on the hunt for a husband, and his loud, lounging, scapegrace older brothers in search of the next dollar and a good time, cooking up scams and leaving a mess behind. As for Waldrop, the narrator of what he describes as a fictional memoir, he looks back at those days with a peculiar detachment of his own, compassionate, quietly humorous at times, in light of which the simple facts assume a stark, near hallucinatory clarity, while scenes of life spool by like a home movie to no sound. \"Neither the joys of heaven nor hell's worst prospects,\" Waldrop writes, \"provide as forceful a motive as the mere emptiness of the world.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eLight While There Is Light\u003c\/i\u003e, Waldrop writes in a tradition that extends back to Hawthorne, Poe, and Dreiser, as he reveals the fear, madness, and destruction lurking behind the makeshift and make-believe of American life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Keith Waldrop\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New York Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/12\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 216\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.48lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.05w x 0.48d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798896230366\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKeith Waldrop\u003c\/b\u003e (1932-2023) was born in Emporia, Kansas. He published his first book of poetry, \u003ci\u003eA Windmill Near Cavalry\u003c\/i\u003e, in 1968, and won the National Book Award for Poetry for his 2009 collection \u003ci\u003eTranscendental Studies: A Trilogy\u003c\/i\u003e. In 1961, Waldrop and his wife, Rosmarie Waldrop, founded Burning Deck, an influential small press that specialized in the publication of experimental poetry and prose. He was a professor of English at Brown University for 43 years. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eBen Lerner\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of nine books of poetry and prose as well as several collaborations with visual artists. He is the editor of \u003ci\u003eKeeping \/ the window open: Interviews, Statements, Alarms, Excursions, \u003c\/i\u003ea collection exploring the lives and work of Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Keith Waldrop \/ Paperback \/ English","offer_id":48311288463517,"sku":"9798896230366","price":20.34,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0619\/5648\/9373\/files\/img_c254f395-87d9-4e33-abb4-e6a9400e79ee.jpg?v=1779260599","url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/light-while-there-is-light-an-american-history-9798896230366","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}