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Hold still
482 pages
A lyrical, startlingly revealing descent into a complicated Southern family's archives, blending haunting photographs with page-turning drama.
What it feels like
Reading this memoir feels like stepping into the shadowy, storied landscape of the American South, guided by a narrator who is both a masterful artist and a relentless archivist of her own bloodline. The experience is uniquely textured by the interplay of beautifully written, lyrical prose and startlingly revealing photographs. What begins as a reflective journey through yellowed family papers quickly accelerates into a propulsive, page-turning drama filled with deceit, clandestine affairs, and even bloody murder. The mood is haunting and deeply atmospheric, wrapping the reader in a complex web of mortality, race, and disputed land. It will thoroughly delight readers who crave deeply personal histories that pulse with the dark, fertile energy of a great novel.
- Mood
- haunting
- atmospheric
- shadowy
- intimate
- Tone
- revealing
- lyrical
- reflective
- startling
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- family legacy and DNA · mortality and memory · the American South · art and photography · buried secrets
- The writing
- Beautifully written and lyrical, crafting a unique interplay between evocative narrative and startlingly revealing images.
- The arc
- Begins as a reflective sorting of yellowed photographs and evolves into a startling, dramatic confrontation with a complicated, shadowy heritage.
- Who it's for
- Devoured by readers who crave atmospheric, beautifully written memoirs that read like gripping Southern novels while exploring the deep roots of family and art.
Content notes
- domestic abuse
- alcohol
- car crashes
- murder
- racial complications
About the book
A revealing and beautifully written memoir and family history from acclaimed photographer Sally Mann. In this groundbreaking book, a unique interplay of narrative and image, Mann's preoccupation with family, race, mortality, and the storied landscape of the American South are revealed as almost genetically predetermined, written into her DNA by the family history that precedes her. Sorting through boxes of family papers and yellowed photographs she finds more than she bargained for: deceit and scandal, alcohol, domestic abuse, car crashes, bogeymen, clandestine affairs, dearly loved and disputed family land... racial complications, vast sums of money made and lost, the return of the prodigal son, and maybe even bloody murder. In lyrical prose and startlingly revealing photographs, she crafts a totally original form of personal history that has the page-turning drama of a great novel but is firmly rooted in the fertile soil of her own life.
Description from Open Library.
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