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"In order to extract something beyond beautiful from ordinary words, C. Vance retold his family's history abstractly rather than using the traditional memoir form. Somewhere in the process, the story infected words and the words became fable. Now, the author finds it difficult to remember if his grandfather really built bridges or something else -- and in what way his father actually harvested land -- and where his parents truly met -- and how the world finally ended. In some places, the words succeeded in becoming something beautiful and true; in other places, the fable is more honest than anything that actually happened."--Back cover.