Pink Houses and Family Taverns

These creative essays by Illinois native Becky Bradway are both personal and narrative: They are memoir, as the author debates important life decisions and reveals details about her upbringing in a poor rural Illinois community, presenting us with a vivid array of characters - family and friends - who made an impression on her; and they are commentary on place, as contemporary events lead the author to engage the topics of race relations, class consciousness, social status, music/culture/landscape, and creative impulses. The essays are complemented by a selection of black-and-white photographs by Midwestern artists who share the author’s vision of place. Pink Houses and Family Taverns is a collection of creative non-fiction essays by Becky Bradway, who grew up in rural Illinois and later came back to her home state to settle. The essays are both personal and narrative: They are memoir, as the author debates important life decisions and reveals details about her upbringing among poor country folk in rural Illinois, presenting us with a vivid array of characters - family and friends - who made an impression on her; and they are commentary on place, as contemporary events lead the author to engage the topics of race relations, class consciousness, social status, music/culture/landscape, and creative impulses. Bradway writes in a style that is as unpretentious as it is ingratiating, oftentimes humorous and occasionally sardonic, and she approaches her subjects with sincerity, open-mindedness, and compassion. The essays are complemented by a selection of black-and-white photographs by Midwestern artists who share the author’s vision of place.