POWER IN THE BLOOD: A Family Narrative, by LINDA TATE (Ohio University Press 2009). This fascinating new book traces Linda Tate’s journey to rediscover the Cherokee-Appalachian branch of her family and provides an unflinching examination of the poverty, discrimination, and family violence that marked their lives. Although it is a memoir, author Linda Tate had to “imagine” some of the details of her search for her family’s story. She did it beautifully. With all the facts and memories woven in, her research over many years in Appalachia made the imagined parts more informed than not. She also used pseudonyms for some family members who may not have wanted their stories shared. But, in essence, this is Linda’s story, her life, and her family through the ages. The writing is lively and compelling and at times she is painfully honest about childhood events. But it is the spare beauty of that honesty that makes this book extraordinary.
Linda Tate is a faculty member in the University of Denver’s Writing Program. She is the author of award-winning A Southern Weave of Women: Fiction of the Contemporary South (U of Georgia Press 1994), and the editor of Conversations with Lee Smith (U Press of Mississippi 2001). She taught at Shepherd University in West Virginia for fifteen years, where she was named West Virginia 2003 Professor of the Year for her deep commitment to teaching. Linda now lives in Boulder, Colorado. She is currently at work on a new book, Reading and Writing the Self to Wellness, written in collaboration with social work professor Jennifer Soule.
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Linda Tate's book,Power in the Blood (love that title!)is one I will surely have to read. My Cherokee partner, John Gritts, and I took a trip last summer to our ancestral homeland in Oklahoma. My grandmother's birth certificate says simply that she was born "on Potapo Creek, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory" so we went in search of the land of her birth. My trip was partially sponsored by a grant from the Colorado Authors League. To read my essay about that ancestral journey, go to http://www.coloradoauthors.org/Site/PageLambertGrantEssay.php. Meantime, I can't wait to check out Power in the Blood! Thank you for the heads-up, Rosemary, and congratulations, Linda.
Sounds like a riveting book! I love tales of people digging through the past to shed some light on where they came from and the subtle influences that run through families. I'll suggest it to my book group.
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