Your memory is a monster; you forget— it doesn’t. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you or hides things from you—and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you! - John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany
Book Summary
After the initial euphoria, one of the potholes along the road as we transition from work to retirement may be the need to discover a new purpose to fill the sudden void. Helpful ideas may be buried in a closet, an attic, or wherever else you store your personal artifacts.
My Father’s Letters: Connecting Past to Present shows how re-evaluating a father’s writings to his family eventually illuminated his son’s life trajectory. The letters chronicle two distinct periods: his days as a combat infantryman in World War II Europe and—30 years later—as an accountant tethered to a desk job at a small Midwestern canning company. Whether in France or rural Illinois, Glenn Browne Jr. always shared his experiences with candor, wit, and wisdom.
My Father’s Letters serves as a reminder of the unique qualities of personal correspondence, and how it can offer new insights into our own lives—past, present, and future.
Book Format
In approximately 18,000 words these three themes intertwine in a format of five chapters written as organized notes rather than full essays. Interspersed within are photographs, cartoons*, and book references, which make the story of my father more than memoir of one individual but of life in the Midwest circa 1980. My Father's Letters further defines a path that others may want to consider exploring, as they ponder what they should be doing with all this extra time on their hands.
The Author
Murray Browne is author of two books, The Book Shopper: A Life in Review (2009) published by Paul Dry Books and Down & Outbound: A Mass Transit Satire (2016) by Muted Horn Communications. He is also co-author of Understanding Search Engines: Mathematical Perspective (2005) published by the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Since 2019, he has owned and operated Destination: Books a popup book stall in Atlanta and since 2008 he has edited The Book Shopper blog. You can contact him directly at murray.browne905 AT gmail.com.
*Excerpted from the graphic novel MacDoodle St. (NY Review Comics-2019). ©️1978 & 2019 Mark Alan Stamaty. Reprinted with permission. I also have obtained the rights for the book cover art "You Can’t Lay Down your Memory Chest of Drawers", 1991, fabricated 2008. Tejo Remy (Dutch Born 1960). High Museum of Atlanta.
