If Nights Could Talk
A Family Memoir
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
If Nights Could Talk is a rich gothic story of a Southern family, a tale of wealth and emotional need that spans generations. Marsha Recknagel's memoir begins with the surprise appearance of her 16-year-old nephew, Jamie, who arrives on her doorstep and into her ordered, childless life. Fleeing a chaotic home run by Marsha's unstable younger brother and his wife, Jamie is an ominous creature-and the center of an ongoing family tug-of-war. For Marsha, to open the door is to risk opening herself up to the pain of the past. Reluctantly she takes him in. Thus begins the painful, terrifying, and extraordinary process of unraveling the damage inflicted by her family on one of its own.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her brave and gripping yet convoluted memoir a simultaneous act of familial retribution, self-preservation and redemption Recknagel has the last word on her gothic family history. When her 16-year-old nephew James appears at her Houston home, seeking refuge from his lunatic chimera of a mother and neglectful father, Recknagel must confront the family history of sibling rivalries and betrayals, alcoholism, mental illness and sordid circumstances. Ten years earlier, the death of the workaholic patriarch of this Shreveport, La., family a successful wildcatter who left a $10-million fortune in a trust that favored his grandchildren precipitated a protracted custody battle over James, who was then living with the author's sister. It was a vicious feud pitting Recknagel's brother, his wife (they met in a mental hospital when still teenagers) and her parents against the rest of the Recknagel family. A writing teacher at Rice University, Recknagel rambles on about her need to "outrun their influence" in a personal narrative that overlaps with and coils into the wreckage of James's youth. After Recknagel hastens to find lawyers for James, to adopt him and emancipate him, the last third of the book charts their harrowing six-year journey toward healing. Recknagel's tale of how James perseveres in his battle with undiagnosed sleep apnea, post-traumatic stress disorder and extreme dissociation, and ultimately recovers in her care, is nothing short of miraculous.
