Not For Everyday Use: A Memoir

Description

Tracing four days - from the moment she gets the news that her mother has passed, to her burial - Nunez tells the haunting story of her lifelong struggle to cope with the consequences of the 'sterner stuff' of her parents' ambitions for their children and her mother's seemingly unbreakable conviction that displays of affection are not for everyday use. Written in exquisite prose by a writer the New York Times Book Review calls 'a master at pacing and plotting,' Not for Everyday Use is a page-turner that readers will find impossible to put down.

Elizabeth Nunez is the award-winning author of a memoir and nine novels, four of them selected as New York Times Editors' Choice. Her two most recent books are Not for Everyday Use, a memoir, which won the 2015 prestigious Hurston Wright Legacy Award for nonfiction, and the novel Even in Paradise, a contemporary version of Shakespeare's King Lear. Her other novels are: Boundaries (nominated for the 2012 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Fiction); Anna In-Between (PEN Oakland Award for Literary Excellence and long-listed for an IMPAC Dublin International Literary Award); Prospero's Daughter (2010 Trinidad and Tobago One Book, One Community selection, and the 2006 Florida Center for the Literary Arts One Book, One Community); Bruised Hibiscus (American Book Award); Beyond the Limbo Silence (Independent Publishers Book Award); Grace; Discretion; and When Rocks Dance. Nunez received her PhD from New York University and is a Distinguished Professor at Hunter College, CUNY, where she teaches courses on Caribbean Women Writers and Creative Writing.

Not for Everyday Use is a gorgeous tapestry of mourning and redemption. Nunez is an astonishing writer, approaching the page with both skill and heart. Her memories are well-deep and love-strong. With insights that are both sharp and tender, this is a memoir that will change the way you understand your family, and the world. --Tayari Jones, author of Silver Sparrow Elizabeth Nunez has written a book about love: love of family, love of place, love of literature, and even the love of human flaws. Not for Everyday Use manages to be a memoir rich with tenderness that doesn't shy away from pain and loss. Reading this book was like sitting with a dear friend for a long conversation and only later realizing I'd been in the presence of a true artist. It's not easy to sound casual but attain the profound yet somehow Nunez pulls it off, page after page. --Victor LaValle, author of The Devil in Silver At the heart of this memoir are the moving portraits of parents. Elizabeth Nunez, in a clear, unsentimental, hard-hitting, and direct voice, skillfully structures the story of a mixed-race Portuguese and Trinidadian Roman Catholic family around the preparations for her mother's funeral, exploring their ancestry, their survival, and success in a British colony during its journey toward independence and beyond, finding a way through its complex racial history. Also, at the heart of this story is the relationship between a mother and a daughter, a daughter who leaves home as a young girl to continue her education and make her life in the United States of America. Some of the most poignant moments are those in which the author describes her feelings of belonging and not belonging to 'home.' This is a story that will speak both to Caribbean people 'at home' and those who have left to make their home elsewhere. --Lawrence Scott, author of Light Falling on Bamboo Elizabeth Nunez's Not for Everyday Use is that powerful and essential work which redefines our understanding of the experience of emigration and its impact on families. It is, quite simply, one of the most important books I've read about the intellectual and emotional work we must do to understand our forebears' lives in the context of history and colonialism. --Louise DeSalvo, author of Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives Elizabeth Nunez is one of the finest and most necessary voices in contemporary American and Caribbean fiction. --Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin Ms. Nunez has always had the power to get to the essence of what makes human beings take right and wrong turns. With Boundaries, a reader will find that she, again, does not disappoint. --Edward P. Jones, author of The Known World A new book by Elizabeth Nunez is always excellent news. --Edwidge Danticat Critical Praise for Boundaries by Elizabeth Nunez (A finalist for the 2012 NAACP Image Award in Literature): Many moments of elegant, overarching insight bind the personal to the collective past. --New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) Critical Praise for Anna In-Between by Elizabeth Nunez (Winner of the 2010 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award; Longlisted for the 2011 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award): A psychologically and emotionally astute family portrait, with dark themes like racism, cancer, and the bittersweet longing of the immigrant. --New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) Nunez has created a moving and insightful character study while delving into the complexities of identity politics. Highly recommended. --Library Journal (Starred review) Nunez deftly explores family strife and immigrant identity in her vivid latest...with expressive prose and convincing characters that immediately hook the reader. --Publishers Weekly (Starred review)