|
I'm Your Father, Boy | 
 enlarge | Author: Ezra, E.h. Griffith
Publisher: Hats Off Books
Category: Book
List Price: $40.95
Buy New: $27.03
You Save: $13.92 (34%)
New (20) Used (4) from $27.03
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 1120800
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 188
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 1587363860
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.8742092
EAN: 9781587363863
ASIN: 1587363860
Publication Date: December 24, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
I m Your Father, Boy is about the early years the 1940s and 1950s of a distinctive relationship between the author, Ezra Griffith, and his Barbadian father, Vincent Griffith. Father and son nurtured their first interactions in Alethaville, the family residence that was located in Station Hill, one of those villages in Barbados whose special culture is being eroded with time. It was in this colonial Caribbean island that the father s identity was rooted. Not surprisingly, therefore, it was an event of single proportions when the family moved to New York City in 1956. These transnational migrations always induce stress, as much as they create novel opportunities for the immigrants. In retrospective contemplation, the author celebrates his father s life and a relationship so powerfully linked to things Barbadian. He also laments the fact that the important memories attaching him to his father cannot survive the impact of time s passing and the newfangled adjustments forced on us all by modernization and globalization.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Fathers, sons, and culture March 24, 2005
Michael Rowe (Connecticut)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm Your Father, Boy is called a memoir, but it has the richness, the fully-drawn characters, the dialogue, and the richness of language that make me think of terms like "non-fiction novel," or "literary non-fiction." Dr. Griffith lovingly (but not sentimentally) makes his father, himself, Barbados, New York City, and a whole cast of supporting characters come alive. I felt as though I was remembering things I never knew and learning about new things at the same time. Dr. Griffith gets beyond nostalgia to the real place, the real sights and sounds of growing up in Barbados, the good and the bad. He gets beyond the truisms that go with the idea of a "clash of cultures" to the disjuncture of seeing and feeling that constitutes that clash, straight to the heart of change and shock and loss. It's good to read a man writing about his father, and a psychiatrist and academic writing about his religious roots. I'm Your Father, Boy is a wonderful accomplishment, and a joy to read.
 A Chronicle of Father Son Dynamics in West Indian Culture June 15, 2005
Audrey E. Kerr
I'm Your Father, Boy -- as the title suggests -- is a smart, thoughtful, humorous, engaging and thorough consideration of the fragile relationship between a father and a son, as this son finds his way through childhood, young adulthood, and into manhood. Dr. Ezra Griffith (the son) uses his vivid memories of his father to construct an engaging life narrative: the combination of resistance to and respect for his father distinguishes the parameters of this story, and speaks, generally, to West Indian cultural dynamics between children and parents. This book is as much a cultural study as it is autobiographical and biographical.
What distinguishes I'm Your Father, Boy from the usual bildungsroman is Griffith's ability to isolate his experience with his father from the rest of their world, without disregarding or undervaluing other community members -- including his mother, and a cast of neighbors, relatives and friends. In other words, he and his father center this narrative and others are invited into the text to support it. Thus, while his father's death and his return home to the funeral frames this story -- and brings his life into a new context -- it is the everyday lessons that Griffith learns from his father that shape him into the man he is today (that man, it is significant to note, is a respected member of the Psychiatry faculty at Yale).
I'm Your Father, Boy would be a wonderful addition to a course in autobiography or African American/African Diaspora Studies. But, in general, it is just a good read, and a wonderful celebration of family and kinship.
Audrey Elisa Kerr, PhD
Associate Professor
English Department
Southern Connecticut State University
Making the transistion come alive November 23, 2005
Michael A. Clarke (Washington, DC)
Dr. Griffith demonstrates mastery of the narrative. I am also a Barbadian who has also made the transition to living and working in North America via New York. Dr. Griffith was able to connect with me on many levels. He has brought to life the experiences of Barbadian immigrants in a manner that resonnates with our experiences and yet remains accessible to the non-immigrant. This book has revealed aspects of myself to me. An excellent read for those looking for insight into the Barbadian immigrant mentality.
|
|
|
|
| |
