Cracker Gothic: a florida woman's memoir

By Wanda Suttle Duncan

Book Overview

I am a seventh-generation Florida Cracker, a product of Green Cove Springs, a small town in Florida that P.T. Barnum called "this salubrious and almost enchanted" place.

"Salubrious" means health-giving, pleasant, delightful, and Green Cove Springs is all of those things. However, I must part ways with Mr. Barnum, and contend that the place is most certainly enchanted, with no "almost" about it.

I ended the Cracker legacy of my family by moving out of state as a young woman.

When my mother was diagnosed with dementia in 2008, I came back more frequently to be with and care for her. Three years later, my husband committed suicide. As a way to heal, I returned to my hometown for extended stays, and immersed myself in a life I had left decades ago.

This memoir is my heart song, a tribute to the beautiful, quirky place from where I came, the place that embraced and sheltered me when I needed a safe haven for a while.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1618460757
• ISBN13: 9781618460752
• Release Date: April 2019
• Publisher: Library Partners Press
• Length: 198 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A real gem

Cracker Gothic is a finely crafted memoir that intertwines the author's experience in managing the care of an aging parent while also revisiting her small town past. The narrative flows between the gut-wrenching personal details and the quirky, often fascinating "truth is stranger than fiction" local details and characters, feeling loosely connected at first but ultimately knitting itself together in a manner befitting the people and place depicted. I highly recommend this to all, but especially to those who love a story well-told.