Rick Bragg

Virginia Mae Carl

The author continues his personal history of the Deep South with an evocation of his mother's childhood in the Appalachian foothills during the Great Depression and the inspiring story of the man who raised her.

Ava's Man

window

This is a follow-up to Bragg's All Over But the Shoutin' and is somewhat of a prequel to Shoutin'. Ava's Man is a loosely biographical account of Bragg's grandparents and their children with the focus mainly on Charlie Bondrum, his grandfather.

Bragg's prose shines in this book just as it did in Shoutin'. The reader gets a real sense of the time and places that his grandparents lived in as well as a flavor of their culture and personalities.

Bragg pieced together this story by interviewing numerous family members and friends of Charlie's. Memories and anecdotes combine to form a picture of a man who is a good man, despite the fact that he runs moonshine, occasionally breaks the law, and does a few stints in the local jail. He is a family man who reveres his wife and children although at times, he reveres his "likker" a little more. He is a self-sufficient man who, despite being poor, takes care of his family on his own-and sometimes takes care of others too-with his only handout being government cheese. He is a strong man who overcame just about any physical challenge except the destruction of his liver.

Even though Charlie died before Bragg was born, Bragg is able to make his readers feel as if they knew Charlie. And in the process of getting to know Charlie, readers come to understand that a rich and full life have nothing to do with your checkbook and everything to do with your character.