University of Wisconsin Press, 2017 eISBN: 978-0-299-33508-3 | Paper: 978-0-299-33504-5 Library of Congress Classification CT275.H385637A3 2022 Dewey Decimal Classification 306.8742092
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Sharon Harrigan’s father was larger than life, a brilliant but troubled man who blew off his hand with dynamite before she was born and died in a mysterious and bizarre accident when she was seven. The story of his death never made sense. How did he really die? And why was she so sure that asking would be dangerous? A series of events compel her to find the answers, collecting other people’s memories and uncovering her own. Her two-year odyssey takes her from Virginia to Detroit to Paris and finally to the wilds of northern Michigan where her father died. There, she discovers the real danger and has to confront her fear.
Playing with Dynamite is about the family secrets that can distance us from each other and the honesty that can bring us closer. It’s about a daughter who goes looking for her father but finds her mother instead. It’s about memory and truth, grieving and growing, and what it means to go home again.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Sharon Harrigan teaches at WriterHouse, a nonprofit literary center in Charlottesville, Virginia. She is the author of Half. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in the New York Times (Modern Love), Narrative, and Virginia Quarterly Review.
REVIEWS
“Playing with Dynamite pulled me in from the very first page.”—Trudy Hale, Streetlight Magazine
“A warm, engaging read about the ways in which memory distorts our understanding of family.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Sharon Harrigan has written a thrilling memoir about searching for the truth about her dad. . . . Both about the danger—and relief—of finding the truth, it's also a gorgeously written page-turner.”—Caroline Leavitt, bestselling author of Cruel, Beautiful World
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