Fall Read

Since August, Radio Readers have shared stories about borders and becoming. Our stories have been prompted by the books in our Fall read: Cather’s My Antonia and Nazario’s Enrique’s Journey.

The third book in this series is Dave Eggers’ 2006 novel, What is the What : The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng.  Recognized by various organizations as a “best” and “notable” book, What is the What is titled an autobiography, described as a novel, yet frequently classified as social history.

Hi, I’m Lynn Boitano in Garden City Kansas for the HPPR Readers Reader’s Book Club exploring the theme: Stories, Borders and Becoming.  Reading our recent book Enrique’s Journey I’m reminded of the indelible impressions that our families make on us through the daily routines, traditions, sacrifices and time spent together. 

All of these interactions accumulate to create our family story.  As a 6th grade reading teacher in district that’s rich in cultural diversity I’ve had the opportunity to get a glimpse into my students’ family stories and witness the strong bonds that bind families together across many cultures.

HPPR listeners thinking about the theme of this year’s book club--Borders and Becoming--need to keep in mind that borders change to meet the needs of those who live within them. Over the last two and a half centuries, the parameters of the United States changed repeatedly. A modern day description of the contiguous states would include Folksinger Woody Guthrie’s first stanza of “This Land Is Your Land.”

The essence of poetry is song, or lyrical feeling. How well Willa Cather understood the lyrical beauty of the Great Plains. She delights readers of My Antonia with poetic passages, like Jim Burden’s first look at Nebraska: “There was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made.”

When I learned that our Radio Readers Fall Read would be themed “Stories: Borders and Becoming,” I began to think about what that might mean, exactly. We all have family stories of our beginnings and becoming in this country.  Whether we’re descendants of German  immigrants, Irish immigrants, Mexican immigrants, Asian immigrants, we all “just came here” at one time or another.  We have that story of becoming in common.

Plenty of memes and essays tell Facebookers, tweeters, and readers to live in the moment. In general, it’s good advice for a satisfying and contented life. However, learning about and understanding the stories of a certain place and people who lived and are living in that geographic locale add depth to our existence.