When We Were the Kennedys - by Monica Wood (Paperback)

About the Book

Monica Wood's moving memoir of the season in 1963 Mexico, Maine, as she, her mother, and her three sisters healed after the loss of their mill-worker father and then the nation's loss of its handsome young Catholic president.

Book Synopsis

Winner of the 2012 Sarton Memoir Award

"Every few years, a memoir comes along that revitalizes the form...With generous, precise, and unsentimental prose, Monica Wood brilliantly achieves this . . . When We Were the Kennedys is a deeply moving gem!"--Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog and Townie

Mexico, Maine, 1963: The Wood family is much like its close, Catholic, immigrant neighbors, all dependent on the fathers' wages from the Oxford Paper Company. But when Dad suddenly dies on his way to work, Mum and the four deeply connected Wood girls are set adrift. When We Were the Kennedys is the story of how a family, a town, and then a nation mourns and finds the strength to move on.

"On her own terms, wry and empathetic, Wood locates the melodies in the aftershock of sudden loss."--Boston Globe

"[A] marvel of storytelling, layered and rich. It is, by turns, a chronicle of the renowned paper mill that was both pride and poison to several generations of a town; a tribute to the ethnic stew of immigrant families that grew and prospered there; and an account of one family's grief, love, and resilience."--Maine Sunday Telegram

From the Back Cover

Winner of the 2012 Sarton Memorial Award
Every few years, a memoir comes along that revitalizes the form With generous, precise, and unsentimental prose, Monica Wood brilliantly achieves this . . . When We Were the Kennedys is a deeply moving gem! Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog and Townie
Mexico, Maine, 1963: The Wood family is much like its close, Catholic, immigrant neighbors, all dependent on the fathers wages from the Oxford Paper Company. But when Dad suddenly dies on his way to work, Mum and the four deeply connected Wood girls are set adrift. When We Were the Kennedys is the story of how a family, a town, and then a nation mourns and finds the strength to move on.
On her own terms, wry and empathetic, Wood locates the melodies in the aftershock of sudden loss. Boston Globe
[A] marvel of storytelling, layered and rich. It is, by turns, a chronicle of the renowned paper mill that was both pride and poison to several generations of a town; a tribute to the ethnic stew of immigrant families that grew and prospered there; and an account of one family s grief, love, and resilience. Maine Sunday Telegram

"

Review Quotes

"When We Were the Kennedys is a sharp, stunning portrait of a family's grief and healing, and it also offers a refreshing lens through which to view the JFK tragedy, as his family's loss helps the Woods feel less adrift in their own sea of anguish...Wood writes beautifully." --Washingtonian
"Wood movingly renders her childhood in Mexico, Maine, and her large Catholic family's fight to survive after her father's sudden death. It's a pleasure to linger with her elegant prose, keen eye, and grace of thought."--Reader's Digest "The book is a shining example of everything a memoir should be." --U.S. Catholic "This is a beautifully composed snapshot of how a family, a town--and, later, a country--grieves and goes on...The bonds between family members, neighbors, and coworkers, as well as men and their professions, are all explored here with sensitivity and a sweetness that isn't saccharine." --Library Journal

"Braiding her own story of mourning together with the heartbreak all around her, Wood has written a tender memoir of a very different time." --O, the Oprah Magazine "Every few years, a memoir comes along that revitalizes the form, that takes us by the hand and leads us into the dream world of our collective past from which we emerge more wholly ourselves. With generous, precise, and unsentimental prose, Monica Wood brilliantly achieves this, bringing back to life the rural paper mill town of not only her youth but America's, too, its bumbling, hard-working, often violent, yet mostly good-hearted lurch forward into the 21st century. When We Were the Kennedys is a deeply moving gem!"--Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog and Townie "This is an extraordinarily moving book, so carefully and artfully realized, about loss and life and love.　 Monica Wood displays all her superb novelistic skills in this breathtaking, evocative new memoir.　 Wow."--Ken Burns, filmmaker "Monica Wood has written a gorgeous, gripping memoir. I don't know that I've ever pulled so hard for a family. When We Were the Kennedys captures a shimmering mill-town world on the edge of oblivion, in a voice that brims with hope, feeling, and wonder. The book humbles and soars."--Mike Paterniti, author of Driving Mr. Albert "Monica Wood is a stunning writer and When We Were the Kennedys a luminous and resonant achievement. If I were standing beside you, I would press this book into your hands."--Lily King, author of The Pleasing Hour and Father of the Rain Wood's book...goes much beyond the story of her family's grief. The book is a meditation on time... It's also a record of a vanished way of life... it avoids sentimentalizing small-town life... By bringing such a town to life, with all its complexities and imperfections, it's to Monica Wood's great credit that she goes a long way to answering these questions. The New Yorker online
"In her intimate but expansive memoir, Monica Wood explores not only her family's grief but also the national end of innocence. Braiding her own story of mourning together with the heartbreak all around her, Wood has written a tender memoir of a very different time." --Oprah Magazine "On her own terms, wry and empathetic, Wood locates the melodies in the aftershock of sudden loss...That a memory piece as pacific and unassuming as When We Were the Kennedys should be allowed a seat in the hothouse society of tell-alls is a tribute to the welcoming sensibility of its author and the knowing faith of her publisher. " Boston Globe "It's a pleasure to linger with her elegant prose, keen eye, and grace of thought." --Reader's Digest "Best of America" issue "Wood's gorgeously wrought new book...is a sharp, stunning portrait of a family's grief and healing, and it also offer a refreshing lens through which to view the JFK tragedy, as his family's loss helps the Woods feel less adrift in their own sea of anguish." --The Washingtonian "Best of Washington" issue "Extraordinary, powerful and moving...This heart-wrenching, emotional, sometimes funny, oftentimes astonishing, and always compelling story is far better than the best novel...You will find yourself pausing, rereading entire paragraphs and thinking about what you've read...Read it and weep. Read it and wonder. Read it and rejoice. Kennebec Journal/Waterville (Maine) Morning Sentinel "This is an extraordinarily moving book, so carefully and artfully realized...Monica Wood displays all her superb novelistic skills in this breathtaking, evocative new memoir. Wow." --Ken Burns, filmmaker "A tender, plaintive...genuinely compelling depiction of family grief...a bittersweet, end-of-innocence family drama." --Kirkus "My great book of the summer...It's a terrific book, telling the story of Wood's family after the sudden death of her father when she was only nine. That's sad, of course, but the book isn't about being sad, it's about being a family. It's also about an era--the year was 1963--and draws a parallel between Wood's story and the national loss of President Kennedy." Bill Roorbach in Orion Magazine

About the Author

MONICA WOOD is the author of the novel Any Bitter Thing, an American Booksellers Association extended bestseller and a Book Sense Top Ten pick; Ernie's Ark; and My Only Story, a finalist for the Kate Chopin Award.