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All over but the Shoutin' | 
 enlarge | Author: Rick Bragg
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Rating:  298 reviews
Sales Rank: 5849
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 0679774025
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.92
EAN: 9780679774020
ASIN: 0679774025
Publication Date: September 8, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: cover torn ACCEPTABLE with noted wear to cover and pages. Binding intact. May contain highlighting, inscriptions or notations. We offer a no-hassle guarantee on all our items. Orders generally ship by the next business day. Default Text
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Amazon.com Review
One reason Rick Bragg won a Pulitzer Prize for his feature articles at the New York Times is that he never forgets his roots. When he writes about death and violence in urban slums, Bragg draws on firsthand knowledge of how poverty deforms lives and on his personal belief in the dignity of poor people. His memoir of a hardscrabble Southern youth pays moving tribute to his indomitable mother and struggles to forgive his drunken father. All Over but the Shoutin' is beautifully achieved on both these counts--and many more.
Product Description
This haunting, harrowing, gloriously moving recollection of a life on the American margin is the story of Rick Bragg, who grew up dirt-poor in northeastern Alabama, seemingly destined for either the cotton mills or the penitentiary, and instead became a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. It is the story of Bragg's father, a hard-drinking man with a murderous temper and the habit of running out on the people who needed him most.But at the center of this soaring memoir is Bragg's mother, who went eighteen years without a new dress so that her sons could have school clothes and picked other people's cotton so that her children wouldn't have to live on welfare alone. Evoking these lives--and the country that shaped and nourished them--with artistry, honesty, and compassion, Rick Bragg brings home the love and suffering that lie at the heart of every family. The result is unforgettable.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 293 more reviews...
 All Over but the Shoutin December 31, 2008
Rick Bragg's story of growing up in the south reveals a life of poverty and tough challenges. His mother's strength and commitment to her boys is her top priority as she scrapes out a life in Alabama. The story engaged me from the first paragraph and Bragg's rich writing style carried me through to the end as I experienced the joy and devastation that framed his life.
 The real story is at the end December 16, 2008
I may be just about the only reader who appreciated the second half of Rick Bragg's book more than the first half. The author's tales of his family in the first half quickly became old for me. I didn't think I could take another sentence about this family that drank and brawled itself to early deaths, prison sentences and wasted lives.
Fortunately, the second part of the book opens up into the wider world. I loved reading about the news stories of the day and how he covered them. He has an amazing open-mindedness and curiosity about people that allows him to move around freely in places most people -- journalists included -- would be uncomfortable and, therefore, useless as observers.
The second half of the book is also peopled with legends of the journalistic world. They are people of accomplishment whose stories I enjoyed more than the depressing stories of Bragg's family. It's a shame that Bragg confines his approval to a handful of editors and photographers. He's worked with some of the finest writers in the world, and he blows them all off as upper-class privileged snobs. Newsrooms are quirky workplaces filled with people whose CVs are rarely standard-issue WASP. Had he applied some of his open-mindedness to his co-workers, his book would have been even more interesting to read.
 Started out okay but.... August 20, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I found myself plodding on and on to get through this book. I thought the very early part of the memoir (about the first 1/4 of it) made for some very interesting reading. I liked the authors style--almost like reading a prose poem---but then the author took us in his early career as a journalist I read too many chapters about that; and that is when I shut the book for good.
Too Good July 28, 2008
This is not only a wonderful story, but written beautifully. Great for adults and teens alike.
Wonderfully Written Book July 23, 2008
This is one of the best well-written books I've read in a long time. His powerful story of a ragged, poverty-filled childhood with an abusive, neglectful, alcoholic father is very compellingly told.
Bragg's focus is on his strong and yet victimized mother. The only nagging thing that bothered me is Bragg's adulation of his mother to the point that he neglects the fact that she bears some responsibility for continually going back to the loser and exposing the kids to the financial and emotional depravation that occurred.
I will read his other books because the writing is so crisp and clean.
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