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An intensely stirring coming-of-age memoir by Alison Smith, Name All the Animals brilliantly explores the power and limitations of a family's faith. Smith was 15 when her older brother, Roy, was killed in a car accident, and her memoir follows her family as they attempt to put their lives back together. Her parents try to take comfort in their strong Catholic faith but are nonetheless shattered. For her part, Smith wonders why God has abandoned her. She finds cold comfort in Catholic symbols and rituals, feeling a connection to Roy only when she enters the old fort they had built together.
An engaging storyteller, Smith crafts her memoir to read like a novel, interspersing moving flashbacks of the times she spent with her brother with amusing portraits of the nuns at her parochial school, who sneak out of the infirmary to play cards and make autumnal visits to a secret swimming pool. As a child, Smith wonders why her father blesses her and Roy every morning, touching a relic to their foreheads, mouths, and hands, mentioning each individual body part. "He's got to name us, like Adam named the animals," Roy explained. "To keep track of them." The near impossibility of "keeping track," and the changing nature of faith are just two of the poignant messages in this unforgettable debut.
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Previews available in: English
Showing 3 featured editions. View all 11 editions?
Edition | Availability |
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1
Name all the animals: a memoir
2005, Scribner
in English
- 1st Scribner trade pbk. ed.
0743255232 9780743255233
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2
Name All the Animals: A Memoir
January 27, 2004, Scribner
Hardcover
in English
0743255224 9780743255226
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3 |
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Book Details
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"I STARTED SKATING at nearly the same time I took my first steps."
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