Stock photo. Cover may not represent actual copy or condition available.
Flying Sparks
Growing Up on the Edge of Las Vegas
by Odette Larson
ISBN: 1859844154
ISBN-13: 9781859844151
Format: Paperback
|
Summary
Being raped as a child by an adult family friend began this memoirist's downward spiral into a life of abuse and emotional turmoil. Set in the "innocent" 1950s, this chilling memoir chronicles the underside of mid-century American culture.
Customer Reviews
Be the first to review this book!
Bibliographic Details
Publisher: Verso Books
Published date: 2002
Size: 5.25 x 7.25 inches
Weight: 0.66 pounds
Publisher's Notes
Odette Larson vividly recounts her adolescence on the edge of Las Vegas before it became the Disneyfied center of family entertainment that it is today. Contrasting the frontiers of this haunted geography with the severity of her life at home, this extraordinary rite of passage includes a spectacular escape from a mental hospital with two convicted killers and brutal adventures on the streets of Oakland at the age of twelve.
Other Editions
Similar books
Golden Afternoon
by M. M. Kaye
In the second book of her autobiography, M. M. Kaye returns, after spending several years at a British boarding school, to India, the cherished country of her childhood. It is 1927, and nineteen-year-old Mollie makes her debut on the Delhi social scene. Feeling awkward and plain, party etiquette and society's intricate rules fluster her, but she finds comfort in her family, her Indian friends, her watercolors, and the country itself. The same humor, wisdom, and enchantment that inspired M.M. Kaye's bestselling novels fill the pages of Golden Afternoon. Kaye recreates with perfection the nuances of a lifestyle long past and brings the people and glorious terrain of India to vivid life.
Sailing My Shoe to Timbuktu
by Joyce Thompson
In this fiercely candid and moving book, novelist Joyce Thompson recounts a difficult yet transforming period in her life. In words that will ring true to anyone in the "sandwich" generation, Thompson tells the story of her troubled marriage ending, her adjustment to single motherhood, finding new love, turning fifty, dealing with sick and dying parents, and somehow discovering a spiritual home in an ancient, earth-centered tradition. Along the way, she comes to terms with the blessings and specters of her own dysfunctional family. This includes her father, a distinguished judge and chronic alcoholic, and her tough, smart mother, a pioneering woman lawyer, who is slowly succumbing to Alzheimer's and whom Thompson helps to die gracefully, despite many traumatic and even ridiculous moments. But with Thompson's lyrical, personal, and evocative writing, she transforms what could have been a soap opera into a rich, moving, and funny story, full of hope. Thompson's novels are about understanding the human condition, and it's no surprise she focuses that gift on her own life and the lives of her family. Elegant, wise, and witty, Sailing My Shoe to Timbuktu , pulls no punches and is delightfully and compulsively readable.
The Girl from Purple Mountain
by Winberg Chai
A first born son and his daughter reconstruct his mother's extraordinary life a true story of love, betrayal and healing, set against the shifting tides of 20th century China.
Opal
by Kathrine Beck
A portrait of Opal Whitley, the young Oregon logging town resident who recorded her experiences and mystical relationship with God, examines the range of identities and roles attributed to her since the sensational publication of her diary, from New Age prophet and environmentalist to mad genius and long-lost princess.
Burnt Bread & Chutney
by Carmit Delman
“From the outside, no matter what the gradations of my mixed heritage, the shadow of Indian brown in my skin caused others to automatically perceive me as Hindu or Muslim. . . . Still, I trekked through life with the spirit of a Jew, fleshed out by the unique challenges and wonders of a combined brown and white tradition.” In the politics of skin color, Carmit Delman is an ambassador from a world of which few are even aware. Her mother is a direct descendant of the Bene Israel, a tiny, ancient community of Jews thriving amidst the rich cultural tableau of Western India. Her father is American, a Jewish man of Eastern European descent. They met while working the land of a nascent Israeli state. Bound by love for each other and that newborn country, they hardly took notice of the interracial aspect of their union. But their daughter, Carmit, growing up in America, was well aware of her uncommon heritage. Burnt Bread and Chutney is a remarkable synthesis of the universal and the exotic. Carmit Delman’s memories of the sometimes painful, sometimes pleasurable, often awkward moments of her adolescence juxtapose strikingly with mythic tales of her female ancestors living in the Indian-Jewish community. As rites and traditions, smells and textures intertwine, Carmit’s unique cultural identity evolves. It is a youth spent dancing on the roofs of bomb shelters on a kibbutz in Israel—and the knowledge of a heritage marked by arranged marriages and archaic rules and roles. It is coming of age in Jewish summer camps and at KISS concerts—and the inevitable combination of old and new: ancient customs and modern attitudes, Jewish, Indian, and American. Carmit Delman’s journey through religious traditions, family tensions, and social tribulations to a healthy sense of wholeness and self is rendered with grace and an acute sense of depth. Burnt Bread and Chutney is a rich and innovative book that opens wide a previously unseen world.
|
|
Ready to buy this book?
Below are all of the copies of 1859844154 we currently have available for purchase, sorted by lowest price first. If you would like to refine your search, use the advanced options in the search box above.
|
|
1)
|
Flying Sparks: Growing Up on the Edge of Las Vegas (Qty: 5)
Larson, Odette
Verso. PAPERBACK. 1859844154 this book is new may have a remaindermark .thanks for looking at bookscorner1. . New. ( more information) Offered by bookscorner1 (United States)
Favorite bookseller : you've previously added this bookseller to your favorites list.
|
|
|
2)
|
Flying Sparks : Growing up on the Edge of Las Vegas
Larson, Odette
NY: Verso, 2001. 279 pages.. ISBN: 1859844154. Trade Paperback. As New. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. ODETTE LARSON LAS VEGAS NEVADA SAN FRANCISCO MENTALLY ILL UNITED STATES. ( more information) Offered by Highway Book Shop (Canada)
Favorite bookseller : you've previously added this bookseller to your favorites list.
|
Price: CAD $12.00
($11.29)
|
|
3)
|
Flying Sparks (Qty: 3)
LARSON
VERSO, 23-0. Brand new. Odette Larson vividly recounts her adolescence on the edge of Las Vegas before it became the Disneyfied centre of family entertainment that it is today. Contrasting the frontiers of this haunted geography with the severity of her life at home, this extraordinary rite of passage includes a spectacular escape from a mental hospital with two convicted killers and brutal adventures on the streets of Oakland at the age of twelve. ( more information) Offered by Thunder Books (United States)
Favorite bookseller : you've previously added this bookseller to your favorites list.
|
|
|
0 items in cart
Muze Inc. For personal non-commercial use only. All rights reserved. Some content for books is owned by Baker & Taylor, Inc. or its licensors and is subject to copyright and all other protections provided by applicable law.
