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Title: SUMMER OF DELIVERANCE: A Memoir of Father and Son by Christopher Dickey ISBN: 0-684-85537-2 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 04 August, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.27 (15 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Compassionate,hauntingly familiar, and forgiving!
Comment: Anyone with a father can relate to this book. No one needs to live the horrors of alcoholism to identify with the unrelenting need to be loved by our parents, especially our fathers. Regardless of age,race,or financial status, we continuously seek the approval of our parents. And Christopher Dickey paints an honest portrayal of what it's like to trust,love,hate and endure our parents. His experiences stir our hearts as we identify with the pain a parent can inflict on us. As his story unfolds, we see a part of ourselves in him as he learns to put things into perspective and let go of the pain. Refreshingly honest,and poetically constructed, Christopher Dickey has a magical way with words that makes us better for having shared his, and our, life experiences. A timeless story,excellently written, and guaranteed not to be forgotton!
Rating: 4
Summary: Summer of Deliverance - A Poignant Story of Forgiveness
Comment: Summer of Deliverance, written by James Dickey's son, Christopher Dickey, is a fascinating mix of biography and autobiography. It tells the story of a man who lived life to its fullest yet drank most of it away, and the son who struggled in his shadow.
James Dickey, while an accomplished and prolific Southern poet, will always be best known for his best selling novel, Deliverance. The novel, and its subsequent film adaptation, is the story of a fateful canoe trip taken by four suburban Atlanta men down a North Georgia river.
Born to a wealthy Atlanta family, Dickey spent his early career criss crossing the country with his wife, Maxine, and their two sons, taking several teaching positions along the way.
Dickey began to garner national recognition with his appointment as the Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress, an honor second only to the Poet Laureate. He was commissioned to write and recite a poem for Jimmy Carter's presidential inauguration. Disappointed to learn that he would not be reciting it at the actual swearing in, a la Robert Frost at JFK's Inauguration, but rather at a televised gala the night before, he was barely able to recite the poem, after enjoying one too many beers backstage with Paul Newman before the show.
But it was the release of Deliverance that put him on the literary map. Deliverance was based on an earlier Dickey poem titled Springer Mountain. Chris Dickey spends a surprisingly short amount of time discussing the actual writing of the book, yet devotes four chapters to the filming of the movie. While James Dickey only made brief appearances on the set, including a cameo as the sheriff, Chris worked the entire shoot as a stand in. Colorful stories of Burt Reynolds' steady stream of female visitors, local inmates being used as film extras, and the unfriendly locals are well documented.
The success of Deliverance brought instant fame and fortune to Dickey, and to say that it went to his head would be a gross understatement. It fueled an already growing drinking problem, which led to marital infidelity and mental abuse of wife and sons.
Chris describes a father who could build you up to make you feel so special, only to tear you down with one of his drunken episodes. He dragged his wife down until she developed a drinking problem of her own, that she died from in 1976. Two months later, Dickey remarried a woman more than half his age.
Soon after, father and son ceased to communicate, an impasse that lasted 20 years. Chris became a respected journalist, covering the turmoil in Central America for The Washington Post, and is now the Paris Bureau Chief for Newsweek magazine. But his father's failing health drew brought him home to Columbia, South Carolina, to care for his father, and to try and begin a dialogue to help work through their problems.
During their time together, James was completely sober, and they spent a great deal of time talking about their lives. Slowly they began the healing process before James died.
Summer of Deliverance is a compelling study of the dichotomy of a public personal and the private reality. The result is a poignant story of forgiveness and understanding between father and son.
Rating: 4
Summary: Duography
Comment: I was frustrated by some aspects of this book.
When I started to care about Christopher Dickey and his adolescent fears, he turned to glossing over his coming of age into distant generalities. He gave us just a taste of the distant places where he expunged his fears by immersion in danger.
While he gave us much insight into his father and his rise to prominence, again, he switches to a distant view, and rather uninsightful one, of the personal pain of alcoholism and exploitation by others that brought about his father's near demise.
For a reporter, although he "told the truth" rather than exagerated, bent the truth, or bold face lied like his father, Christopher seemed to relate the truth from too much of a distance. The ultimate semi and belated rescue of James is admirable. But Christopher could relate some of his feelings at being told by his finally sober dad that he loved Christopher. Although Christopher experienced a lot of pain, he seems to want to pick at those scabs, and not rejoice in the good aspects of his relationship with his father.
Another irritation is the way Christopher so often lists off the places he was happy with his father and his family. These are names and situations that carry a lot of meaning for him, but evoke little in everyone else, without some gripping imagery for each place from past parts of the book. Some of these exist, but not for all.
One last reason to read the book is the relation of James Dickey's apparent last lecture on writing poetry...not verse. This section alone is worth the price of the book.
Something tells me Christopher appreciates both the accurate reporting of scenes, and the magic of poetic license. I think that he should turn to fiction for his next book. He could shine by putting accurate detailed images strung in a new order to move the soul. Its time to step out from your father's shadow so far there isn't another shadow at all.
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Title: INNOCENT BLOOD: A NOVEL by Christopher Dickey ISBN: 0684852616 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 19 August, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Expats: Travels in Arabia, from Tripoli to Teheran by Christopher Dickey ISBN: 0871134632 Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press Pub. Date: July, 1991 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Whole Motion: Collected Poems, 1945-1992 by James Dickey ISBN: 0819512184 Publisher: Wesleyan Univ Pr Pub. Date: 15 March, 1992 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Deliverance by JAMES DICKEY ISBN: 038531387X Publisher: Delta Pub. Date: 10 September, 1994 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Technical Editing: The Practical Guide for Editors and Writers (Hewlett-Packard Press) by Judith A. Tarutz ISBN: 0201563568 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: June, 1992 List Price(USD): $39.50 |
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