American Girl: Scenes from a Small-Town Childhood

by Mary Cantwell

Mary Cantwell, an editor and a popular columnist for The New York Times, recalls her childhood in the small seaside town of Bristol, Rhode Island, during the 1940's and 50's. Here, too, is the story of a small town girl who loved her home, but felt drawn to a wider world.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, American, Biography

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/02/nyr...

Reviews

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Cantwell's style is remarkable for its ease of reading, its time- transporting ability, and its non-sentimental poignancy. This memoir of non-dysfunction (hooray!) of growing up in a small town in Rhode Island helps the reader to realize that a lot of small towns around the country are essentially the same.While she is a little bit older than I, her memories still resonated with me of households full of relatives, walking to school every day, finding refuge in books, white gloves, dates, hats, Sunday church services. You get the drift. I thought Bristol was a fine place to spend a few hours...or a childhood.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

As all memoirs are, this was a rather self-indulgent little book. However, unlike others in this genre, this author gently and lovingly describes her girlhood in Bristol, RI. There are no stark revelations - just a hint of dark behavior among characters on the periphery of her young life. The time - wartime and post-war America - is captured in broad strokes, the setting for Cantwell's coming of age and "launching" from the small town she loves, yet knows she needs to escape in order to grow. This is the first of a trilogy of memoirs...the book was interesting enough to make me want to continue, and see how the author evolves as an adult.

[Thomas McDade · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I were not familiar with Bristol RI it would have lost a star. A very entertaining visit.

From Spirituality Practice

American Girl
Scenes from a Small-Town Childhood
By Mary Cantwell
Book Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
This is a beautifully written memoir about growing up in Bristol, Rhode Island, during the 1930s and 1940s. The author, a member of the editorial board of "The New York Times," relishes the simplicities and ample delights of her Irish Catholic childhood. Better than most flashes to the past, this one conveys on a primal level the embrace of place on one woman's soul.

[Dory · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up at a second hand bookstore because I do like a memoir. It’s a pleasant, quick read, full of reminders about how much has changed in the 30 years since it was published. Were she still alive and writing it today, Cantwell might have toned down the privilege. But maybe not, because it’s clearly the nostalgia that she’s indulging here, and don’t we all indulge our own nostalgia sometimes?

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I moved to Bristol, Rhode Island in 2018, but had been coming here for years to visit my daughter and her family. The visit two years ago had a broader goal--to spend a longer time here in a furnished apartment and try out the idea of moving, At first that idea had been a fantasy. I had lived in Nebraska all my life and as an adult, lived in the same house for almost 50 years. I could not actually imagine myself making that big of change, but I hungered for some new experiences, wanted to have time with my grandchildren (I did a parallel try with my son's family in St. Paul MN) and thought I would like to see if I could make a place for myself in a new setting. That would mean becoming much more outgoing than I had been in Nebraska. I had the good fortune of meeting people who accepted me and I left wanting to return. I had the good fortune of becoming a part of an informal group made up of some longtime residents and some that came here to retire, and that enjoyed doing things, both fun and serious, together

Mary Cantwell was close to being a true Bristolian--a title reserved for those who were born there and Mary had been born in Providence, but lived all of her early life there. She eventually moved to New York, but was always drawn to return to her community This book is her memoir written and seems to be her way of preserving and sharing the way things were in her childhood and come to know her family members and friends. I learned about the book from Suzanne Cohn whom I believe is a true Bristolian and one who left, but then came back. She sometimes helps others in our group visualize what things were like in her childhood. It was a fun adventure in and out of places and times, and satisfying to recognize so many places in the narrative. I"m not exactly sure how I fit in this place, but I'm glad I do.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something so sweet on this memoir. It approached cloying, though her class bitterness kept that from happening. Delightful sense of abundance and continuity...forever lost? Wonder what Bristol RI is like today.

[Mary Arafeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this snapshot in time.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Cantwell is now is the same league, in my mind, as Annie Dillard, Ruth Reichl, Laurie Colwin, Anne Lamott and Nora Ephron. Wish her gorgeously written books went on for another 200 pages.

[Fairlyfeisty Dragonwagon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most enjoyable... less because of the subject as such than because Mary Cantwell is just such a durned good writer, and nails the misapprehensions inherent in childhood so well.

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful!

[Stu Webbb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderfully nostalgic reminiscence of a New England childhood.

[JayeL]

April 2014: available in print from SFPL
September 2014: Available in print from PLS