Synopses & Reviews
Part family memoir, part political commentary, part apologia, Dream State tells the grand and sometimes crazy story of Florida through the eyes of one of its native daughters. Acclaimed journalist and NPR commentator Diane Roberts has many family secrets to tell. Roberts’s ancestors helped settle Florida, kill off its pesky Indians, enslave some of its inhabitants, clear its forests, lay its train tracks, and pave its roads, all the time weaving themselves into the very fabric of the state. With a storyteller’s talent for setting great scenes, Roberts lays out the sweeping history of eight generations of Browards and Bradfords, Tuckers and Robertses. From Florida’s first inhabitants to those involved in the recent past with the botched presidential election of 2000, Roberts renders them all with a deep, familial affection. While exposing the real people whom Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard have been fictionalizing for years, Dream State ultimately reveals the cogs and wheels that make the state tick.
Synopsis
A sweeping story of Florida told through eight generations of family history
"With
hurricane-force prose, journalist and Florida native Roberts hits the
land of orange groves, theme parks and mobile homes with a torrential
outpouring of love and hate, affection and disgust . . . If there ever
was any doubt about the true nature of the Sunshine State--'where what
people think happened is always more important than what really
happened'--Roberts puts it to the test in this splendid unofficial
history."--Publishers Weekly
Part family memoir, part political commentary, part apologia, Dream State tells
the grand and sometimes crazy story of Florida through the eyes of one
of its native daughters. Acclaimed journalist and NPR commentator Diane
Roberts has many family secrets to tell as she reveals how her ancestors
settled in Florida and wove themselves into the very fabric of the
state.
With a storyteller's talent for setting great
scenes, Roberts lays out the sweeping history of eight generations of
Browards and Bradfords, Tuckers and Robertses. Continuing into the
recent past with the botched presidential election of 2000, Roberts
renders Florida's inhabitants with a deep, familial affection. While
exposing the real people whom Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard
fictionalized for years, Dream State ultimately reveals the cogs and wheels that make the state tick.
Synopsis
A sweeping story of Florida told through eight generations of family history
Part family memoir, part political commentary, part apologia, Dream State tells
the grand and sometimes crazy story of Florida through the eyes of one
of its native daughters. Acclaimed journalist and NPR commentator Diane
Roberts has many family secrets to tell as she reveals how her ancestors
settled in Florida and wove themselves into the very fabric of the
state.
With a storyteller's talent for setting great
scenes, Roberts lays out the sweeping history of eight generations of
Browards and Bradfords, Tuckers and Robertses. Continuing into the
recent past with the botched presidential election of 2000, Roberts
renders Florida's inhabitants with a deep, familial affection. While
exposing the real people whom Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard
fictionalized for years, Dream State ultimately reveals the cogs and wheels that make the state tick.
Synopsis
Part family memoir, part political commentary, part apologia, Dream State tells the grand and sometimes crazy story of Florida through the eyes of one of its native daughters. Acclaimed journalist and NPR commentator Diane Roberts has many family secrets to tell. Roberts's ancestors helped settle Florida, kill off its pesky Indians, enslave some of its inhabitants, clear its forests, lay its train tracks, and pave its roads, all the time weaving themselves into the very fabric of the state. With a storyteller's talent for setting great scenes, Roberts lays out the sweeping history of eight generations of Browards and Bradfords, Tuckers and Robertses. From Florida's first inhabitants to those involved in the recent past with the botched presidential election of 2000, Roberts renders them all with a deep, familial affection. While exposing the real people whom Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard have been fictionalizing for years, Dream State ultimately reveals the cogs and wheels that make the state tick.
About the Author
Diane Roberts, professor of English at Florida State University, is author of The Myth of Aunt Jemima: Representations of Race and Region and Faulkner and Southern Womanhood.