Synopses & Reviews
Nonfiction | Memoir $24
As I lay in bed, looking out at the frigid snowscape, I felt a sense of balance. I was situated neatly between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I sensed that if I could remain here forever, in this precise time and place, with this view, with this warmth, with the knowledge that my sisters and parents were all sleeping nearby, I would never be unhappy.”
The eleventh year of life brings Jeremy Jackson his first love, the loss of his grandmother, and his sisters departure for collegeseemingly ordinary events that erode his innocence in a way that will never be fully repaired.
In tenderhearted, steadfast prose, he recalls the pastoral wonders of his rural childhood: thunderstorms roaring off the prairie, fresh milk in bottles, bicycle rides in September sunlight, and the horizon vanishing behind tall grasses. At once elegiac and startlingly direct, these fluid and powerful missives evoke the pain and beauty that mingle within even a happy childhood.
With storytelling informed by a profound sense of place and an emotional memory startlingly vivid, readers young and old will be transported and transformed by this coming-of-age tale.
Jeremy Jackson is the author of the novels Life at These Speeds and In Summer, as well as three cookbooks, including The Cornbread Book, which was nominated for a James Beard Award. He has also written novels for teenagers under the name Alex Bradley. He lives in Iowa.
Review
Advance Praise for
I Will Not Leave You Comfortless"In its openness, its lucidity, its leaps of empathy and its quiet perfectionism, this is one of the most daring and affecting memoirs I've read."
—Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Brief History of the Dead and The Illumination
Review
Praise for
Life at These Speeds:"Occasionally, a sleeper of a book comes your way, a book whose author has not yet reached word-of-mouth status, and you think to yourself, 'My God, this is good.'"
Anita Shreve, author of The Pilot's Wife
Synopsis
I Will Not Leave You Comfortless is the intimate memoir of a boy's growing up in small-town Missouri, from a writer "known for beautifully expressive and strikingly lucid prose" (Thisbe Nissen).
In 1984, the eleventh year of his life, Jeremy Jackson experiences his first love, the loss of his grandmother, and his sister's departure for college--seemingly ordinary events that erode his innocence in a way that will never be fully repaired. Through tenderhearted, steadfast prose--redolent of the glories of outdoor life on the family farm--Jackson recalls the deeply sensual wonders of his rural Midwestern childhood: thunderstorms roaring off the prairie, fresh milk in bottles, bicycle rides in September sunlight, and the horizon vanishing behind tall grasses. At once elegiac and startlingly direct, these fluid and powerful missives evoke the pain and beauty that mingle within even a happy childhood.
With storytelling informed by a profound sense of place and an emotional memory startlingly vivid, readers young and old will be transported and transformed by this coming-of-age tale.
Synopsis
Spanning one year of the author's life,
I Will Not Leave You Comfortless is the intimate memoir of a young boy coming to consciousness in small-town Missouri. 1984 is the year that greets ten-year-old Jeremy with first loves, first losses, and a break from the innocence of boyhood that will never be fully repaired. For Jeremy, the seeming security of family is at once and forever shaken by the life-altering events of that pivotal year. Through tenderhearted, steadfast prose — redolent of the glories of outdoor life on the family farm — Jackson recalls the deeply sensual wonders of his rural Midwestern childhood — bicycle rides in September sunlight; the horizon vanishing behind tall grasses. Reanimating stories both heart wrenching and humorous, tragic and triumphant, Jackson weaves past, present, and future into the rich Missouri landscape.
With storytelling informed by profound sense of place and an emotional memory remarkably sound, Jackson stands poised to join the ranks of renowned memoirists the likes of Tobias Wolff. Readers young and old will be charmed and transformed by his unforgettable coming-of-age tale.
Synopsis
Praise for
I Will Not Leave You ComfortlessJeremy Jacksons swirling memoir is built upon layers of well-chosen detailit remembers the weather, the geography, the history of plowed earth, the coal-smoke taste of coffee, and the aching love between the lines of handwritten letters. The result is like peering through a new lens at a familiar hillside, or walking through the pastures of your childhood and discovering they were bigger, not smaller, than you recall. Bigger, not smallernow that is the mark of a generous writer.”
Leif Enger, author of Peace Like a River
Jeremy Jackson writes about Missouri as the young Hemingway wrote about Michigan: with a clear eye, with hard-edged nostalgia, and (heres the thing) with brilliance. I was going to add that I Will Not Leave You Comfortless reads like fiction, because its well designedbut it doesnt read exactly like fiction. And maybe its because every word of it is absolutely, searingly true.”
Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng
In its openness, its lucidity, its leaps of empathy and its quiet perfectionism, this is one of the most daring and affecting memoirs Ive read.”
Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Brief History of the Dead
About the Author
Jeremy Jackson is the author of two novels,
Life at These Speeds, a B&N Discover pick, and
In Summer, a Booksense Recommends selection. A graduate of Vassar College and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he lives in Iowa City. Jackson is also the author of young adult novels under the name of Alex Bradley, and cookbooks including,
The Cornbread Book, which was nominated for a James Beard Award. He writes about food for the
Chicago Tribune and the
Washington Post.
In His Own Words. . .
Though I was born in Ohio, I grew up with my family on a farm in the Ozark borderlands of Missouri. We raised cattle and hay and had a garden the size of Texas. At various times we had horses, cattle, a pig, sheep, chickens, ducks, and a pony. We ate a lot of these animals, but not the pony. We also had wild blackberries and persimmons and walnuts on our farm. And a pear tree. And we caught fish in our ponds. We ate some of them, too.
For some crazy reason, I headed off to Vassar College, thinking that I would become a writer. Unfortunately, I did. It was all downhill from there, though the sex was good. From Vassar I went straight into the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where I wrote brilliant stories about bunnies, marbles, and a talking mailbox named Ruth. Then I spent a year writing a novel and a screenplay. Then I went and taught English back at Vassar for two years. Being a professor was a mind-numbing experience, though the sex was good. I quit that job and started being a writer full time, which was very much like being a writer part time except that it took a lot more time and I felt much more guilty when I didn't write anything. I moved from Poughkeepsie back to Iowa, which is kind of like moving from the outer circles of hell to the Garden of Eden.