The fruit of all my grief [eBook - NC Digital Library] : Lives in the Shadows of the American Dream

Like the Russian author Svetlana Alexievich, award-winning journalist J. Malcolm Garcia lets the people he writes about speak for themselves. His writing highlights the struggles and the dignity of people quietly fighting for their lives. They include families and small businesses still recovering from the BP oil spill; the man sentenced to life in prison for transporting drugs to pay for the medical care that would save his son’s life; the widows of soldiers who died, not in war, but from toxic fumes they were exposed to at their bases overseas; the Iraqi interpreter who was promised American asylum, only to arrive and be forced to live in poverty. The soaring narratives told in The Fruit of All My Grief let us feel the fears, hopes, and outrage of those living in the shadows of the American Dream. They go by a lot of different names?civilians, unintended victims, innocent bystanders?but no matter what they are called their stories are most frequently left untold. From the families scraping by in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, to the prisoner sentenced to life for transporting drugs to save his son's life, to the soldier who served his country only to be deported, the people whose stories are told in this book all lead rich and multifaceted lives of struggle, the telling of which honors them?and us. The Fruit of All My Grief returns us to the universal themes of endurance, struggle, survival, and the injustices of mammoth institutions and public indifference. J. Malcolm Garcia's soaring narratives amount to an updated portrait of lives lived in the shadows of the American dream?not in the Great Depression years or in the McCarthy era but very much now in the closing year of the second decade of the twenty-first century. "Award-winning journalist, J. Malcolm Garcia's, essays highlight the struggle, survival, and endurance of average people affected by the injustices of America's remorseless mammoth institutions and public indifference. They include families and small businesses still recovering from the BP Oil Spill; the man sentenced to life in prison for transporting drugs to save his son's life; the widows of soldiers who died, not in war, but from toxic fumes they were exposed to at their bases overseas; the Iraqi interpreter who was promised American asylum, only to arrive and be forced to live in poverty; and the soaring narratives told in The Fruit of All My Grief let us feel the fears, hopes, and outrage of those living in the shadows of the 'American Dream'"-- Provided by publisher Sanctuary -- Fishing with the king -- The life sentence of Dicky Joe Jackson and his family -- And the walls came tumbling down -- Backyard battlefields -- Nothing went to waste : considering the life of Ben Kennedy -- What happens after sixteen years in prison -- A product of this town -- Smoke signals -- We are not just refugees -- New missions