Memphis Afternoons

by James Conaway

James Conaway knew there was something wrong with his father before he let himself think about it. The signs were there, in unfocused phone calls and cryptic letters, but for a time they could be ignored. Finally, on a reporting trip to Memphis, his hometown, Conaway visited his parents and faced the facts: his father was sick; he was in the early stages of what proved to be Alzheimer's disease. The dreaded illness is the inspiration for this beautifully written memoir of family and the South. As memory left his father, the author felt moved to recreate the world they had shared, to shore up as many fragments of the past as possible against oblivion. As it happens, many of those fragments are outrageously funny. Memphis Afternoons takes us back to a 1950s society when the rules of southern gentlemanliness were still in effect, if only barely. This is a world where propriety had always fought a dubious battle with bourbon, and now was being defeated by the likes of Elvis Presley. With a rueful wit, Conaway artfully renders a youth of hunting and fishing trips, brawls, and debutante parties, of sexual and alcoholic and literary explorations. The story is told against a wistful background of another generation, his father's, told with a belated appreciation for that generation's ideals, hopes, and its diminished postwar reality. Conaway writes of the idiosyncrasies of his family life with a keen yet tender sense of the absurd, particularly of a sometimes loving, mysterious relationship with his father. Linking the generations is an antiquated but powerful code of conduct, recalled here with extraordinary vividness and humor.

Genres: Biography

211 pages, Hardcover

First published May 26, 1993

About the author

James Conaway is a former Wallace Stegner fellow at Stanford University, and the author of thirteen books, including Napa at Last Light and the New York Times bestseller, Napa: The Story of an American Eden. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Harper's, The New Republic, Gourmet, Smithsonian, and National Geographic Traveler. He divides his time between Washington, DC, and California.

Reviews

[Emily Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the story, but was taken aback by grammatical errors and naming errors - like Miss Hutchinson's School (which is actually spelled Hutchison -- no "n" in the middle)

[John Flaniken · Rating 3 out of 5]

I grew up in the the same part of Memphis as the author, less than a mile from his grandmother's home on Highland. The Highland Street Branch Public Library was where I walked on afternoons after school at East High. I lived in the neighborhood of modest homes next to the toney Chickasaw Gardens neighborhood, where his cousins lived, and about 2 blocks from the Memphis Country Club. Moreover, I was familiar with the work of Cal Alley, the cartoonist for the Commercial Appeal and the successor cartoonist of Hambone. I was about 10 years younger than Conaway, and was about the same age as his younger brother Dan.

So much of what he wrote about was as I remembered it. I could pinpoint each location he talked about. He was so dead-on in describing the caste system of the city's white population. What little he wrote about the racial divide in the city was accurate, but the racial divide is the essence of the city life in Memphis to this day. It was easy for a white person to forget about this racial divide in the years when I, and the author, were growing up; but since half of the city was African-American at the time, this blind spot in the White's world view was and is beyond understanding.

One persistent error that was irritating was his references to "Highland Avenue" on which he lived for about 20 years. The street is "Highland Street." I thought everyone who lived in Memphis knew that the avenues ran East to West. Highland ran north to South and is Highland "Street" on all maps. Maybe Conaway was not a stickler for details, such as where he lived.

For anyone who grew up in Memphis, this is a must read. I wonder if someone unfamiliar with Memphis life would find it as interesting, but I would recommend it to that person as a very important sociological study of a very unique city, an unusual place to be from.

[Lynne Block · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reflections on growing up/well written but boring

[Michael Compton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written book that evokes a very particular time and place in Memphis history. As a (relatively) poor relation to a prominent Southern family, Mr. Conaway has led an interesting life, and he straddles that insider/outsider perspective to advantage.

[James Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good stuff.

[Kathy Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun to look back. Hope he has some more coming.