By: Rick Bragg Publisher: Knopf Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Knopf Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 272 Publication Date: May 06, 2008 Release Date: May 06, 2008
In this final volume of the beloved American saga that began with All Over but the Shoutin’ and continued with Ava’s Man, Rick Bragg closes his circle of family stories with an unforgettable tale about fathers and sons inspired by his own relationship with his ten-year-old stepson.
He learns, right from the start, that a man who chases a woman with a child is like a dog who chases a car and wins. He discovers that he is unsuited to fatherhood, unsuited to fathering this boy in particular, a boy who does not know how to throw a punch and doesn’t need to; a boy accustomed to love and affection rather than violence and neglect; in short, a boy wholly unlike the child Rick once was, and who longs for a relationship with Rick that Rick hasn’t the first inkling of how to embark on. With the weight of this new boy tugging at his clothes, Rick sets out to understand his father, his son, and himself.
The Prince of Frogtown documents a mesmerizing journey back in time to the lush Alabama landscape of Rick’s youth, to Jacksonville’s one-hundred-year-old mill, the town’s blight and salvation; and to a troubled, charismatic hustler coming of age in its shadow, Rick’s father, a man bound to bring harm even to those he truly loves. And the book documents the unexpected corollary to it, the marvelous journey of Rick’s later life: a journey into fatherhood, and toward a child for whom he comes to feel a devotion that staggers him. With candor, insight, tremendous humor, and the remarkable gift for descriptive storytelling on which he made his name, Rick Bragg delivers a brilliant and moving rumination on the lives of boys and men, a poignant reflection on what it means to be a father and a son.
Powerful Stuff.... Rick Bragg is a story par excellence. So simply written [not simplisticly... then I would not bother to write this], yet capable of painting a mental picture that brings you into whatever the author is writing about. I hung out with guys like Rick and his cast of characters back in the day. Each line brings me back to where I used to be and into the new stories as the pages fly by. Great stuff!
Good but not Great I wanted to love this book. I was ready to. All Over But The Shouting is one of my favorite books of all time. Ava's Man was good but not great and the same can be said for The Prince of Frogtown. Not nearly as good stories as the first book. And it's kind of difficult to follow the characters. Not the switching back and forth from present to past. That was dealt with well using the shading on the chapter's about the boy. But during the chapters about his dad all the people telling stories and who they were talking about was confusing. And there just didn't seem to be the magical prose of All Over But The Shouting. This book is definitely worth buying and it's good but just not Great like I hoped.
A Tall Small Tale of Fathers and Sons With this title, The Prince of Frogtown, one expects a story akin to the tall tales of Uncle Remus, and Rick Bragg does not disappoint. He is a consummate storyteller in the southern tradition of "pull up a chair, and let me tell you about the time...." Here he closes the circle of family stories in which his "father occupied only a few pages, but lived between every line."
Marrying late, and instantly acquiring a ten-year-old son, prompted Bragg to look at himself as a father, and finally to explore the father he hardly knew as anything more than a drunken caricature. He goes in search of the real man that lived between the lines of his life's story.
Bragg journeys back and pulls up his chair beside those who remember to hear the stories of his father's life and times. To those stories, he adds his own recollections.
A vignette, "The Boy," prefaces each flashback chapter. These vignettes give us glimpses of Bragg as he learns to be a father to the boy. As he awkwardly makes his way in unfamiliar territory, he remarks, "The woman is mad at me a lot. I make her mad, being me. The boy never is. I walk in the door and the boy never seems disappointed in me."
The two stories running in tandem work well. I enjoyed seeing the Bragg of now in "The Boy" juxtaposed with the Bragg of then, seeing the father he is compared to the father he had.
In the stories of life with his wife and his step-son, we see the tug-of-war between the civil society he now inhabits with the harsh brash past of his and his family's past.
It is interesting to see him vacillate between accepting the boy with one breath and in the next describing him as one of those boys--the soft, spoiled, privileged ones--he remembers from his youth with disdain.
It is not always because of, but sometimes in spite of our life experiences that we become who we become. It is always a choice. I'm glad Rick Bragg chose to write for his life and share it with us.
The final chapter, "The Circle," is both preceded and followed by "The Boy" and the story stops on an up note. His mother and brother stand amid wildflowers on their garden's path. Rick and the boy are flying down the road in the old silver sports car, and we have one last look at Bragg still growing into being a father to the boy.
Perle Champion is a writer, artist, and photographer. Contact: [...]
Another Gem From A Gifted Writer Having read Rick Bragg's other works, I can say that this book not only didn't disappoint me in any way - it is as beautifully written as All Over But The Shoutin' and Ava's Man - but it also fulfilled a curiousty created by All Over But The Shoutin, in particular. It dug in to just who Rick's father was and created a three dimensional man, giving those of us who have followed this family saga an understanding of what made that man tick. There is tremendous sadness in this understanding, but Rick manages to weave in humor that will simply touch your heart. Watching the relationship develop with The Boy through passages so descriptive it was as if I could see the two of them together...more than once I found myself with a lump in my throat...and more than once I beamed with joy (particularly at the church league basketball game)! These "characters" are so rich, you'll forget that these are real people and not some beautifully crafted works of fiction. Very well done!
A REAL Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.... Rick Bragg never fails to mesmerize and entertain...and oh, what a way with words! 'Prince' is my favorite in this trilogy, but I'd heartily recommend any of them. A truly remarkable memoir, touching, engaging, laugh-out-loud funny, and tender in its portrayal of Alabama. I live in Florida now, and travel back and forth to a mountain place we have near my birthplace in Anniston. Rick Bragg never fails to make me wish I were there...
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