While I’m reading, a sentence will grab me and force me to stop. I pay tribute to other authors by sharing their Damn Fine Sentences with you. Then I recount a memory the words bring up for me. It’s about how books connect with your life.
*****
“Home isn’t a choice, home is a set of circumstances.”
———Hanif Abdurraquib
——--There’s Always This Year
When Missouri was twenty, a state convention voted to remain in the Union, after which the Union allowed Missourians to keep their slaves.
When Pappa Brown—my great great grandfather—was fifteen, he escaped from Missouri enslavement and found his way to Iowa, a land of freedom.
When I was fourteen I escaped from Iowa, that is to say, my family moved to California, the land of free love and free college.
When I was forty, marriage dragged me back to the midwest.
When I was seventy, I had lived three decades in Missouri, the land Pappa Brown escaped from.
*****
“Home isn’t a choice, home is a set of circumstances.”
———Hanif Abdurraquib
——--There’s Always This Year
When Missouri was twenty, a state convention voted to remain in the Union, after which the Union allowed Missourians to keep their slaves.
When Pappa Brown—my great great grandfather—was fifteen, he escaped from Missouri enslavement and found his way to Iowa, a land of freedom.
When I was fourteen I escaped from Iowa, that is to say, my family moved to California, the land of free love and free college.
When I was forty, marriage dragged me back to the midwest.
When I was seventy, I had lived three decades in Missouri, the land Pappa Brown escaped from.
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