I won this book in a give away. When I signed up for the the give awa,y I was under the impression that the book was about Diane Johnson's ancestors in the Midwest, whose lives had been forgotten. I was interested in the stories of these ordinary people. When the book arrived, I noticed the subtitle "A Memoir", I knew that I should expect part of the book to be about Diane Johnson herself.

In the prologue called "A weekend with generals" Johnson sets out to tell how the remark of a French friend about Americans being "indifferent to history" causes her to investigate her forebears. However, Johnson finds it necessary to expound on the presence of two army generals and their wives at the moment her friend makes the remark. This was an early tip off of the name dropping later in the book.

Part II of the book chronicles Johnson's childhood in Moline, IL. To me the description of Johnson's youth was not very different from other small town children.

Finally, in part III, "Eighteenth- Century Beginnings" we read about the ancestors for a little more than 85 of the book's 263 pages. The biography of Catherine Martin (the author's great-great-great grandmother) is the most interesting part of the book. Hers is the kind of life we forget about with its frequent deaths, slow arduous travel, hard work and uncomfortable living quarters. Here I actually learned something.

In Part IV "Modern Days" we are back at Johnson's own life. This disturbed and confused me. Why does the author combine her memoir with the story about her ancestors many generations ago? I had a hard time changing from Catherine's toils to Johnson writing movie scripts with famous Hollywood denizens.
Here we see the main weakness of the book, it, tries to be two things at the same time: a historical biography and a personal memoir. With a little more research, especially about her own life Johnson could have managed two entirely different books. Add to that a total rewrite of the memoir, and the result would be much more the quality writing we have come to expect from Diane Johnson. ( )

I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway.

I'd like to apologize to the author for taking so long to post a review. I had a lot going on around my haven, including a new puppy and that has put me behind on my reading.

This book was a tad different from my regular reading material (which varies). It took me a little while to grow an interest in the book, but as I continued through I began to enjoy it more. Diane Johnson is a wonderful writer and this book shares some of her family history along with stories from various parts of her life. There's a lot of nostalgia in the book that I could relate to despite the generation difference. I most enjoyed the parts about the summer house and teenage years. As she stated, it seems to be more of a travel book and though I struggled in the beginning I am glad that I completed it. I can understand some people's frustration but I don't understand the extremely low ratings. I believe it is worth the read and I appreciate the opportunity to do so. ( )

Very disappointing and I didn't finish it. I've never read Johnson and this sounded intriguing but it was not. I found it dull and flat. ( )

I don’t review books I don’t like; there is always the possibility that it is just me.

So all I will say is that I did not like this book. I read it, cover to cover, but I had to force myself to keep reading. I didn’t take anything away from it.

My favorite part was the beautiful cover. And that’s it.

Apologies. Most likely it is just me. ( )