{"id":910,"date":"2024-11-05T12:55:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-05T12:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=910"},"modified":"2024-11-05T12:55:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T12:55:00","slug":"starred-book-review-the-peril-of-remembering-nice-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=910","title":{"rendered":"STARRED Book Review: The Peril of Remembering Nice Things"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Peril of Remembering Nice Things<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Jeffrey Wade Gibbs<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> Memoir<\/p>\n

ISBN: <\/strong>9781953932297<\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 284 pages<\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> April Gloaming Publishing<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/span>Buy from Amazon<\/span>\n <\/div>\n

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Reviewed by Samantha Hui<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>A powerful memoir reminding us to find the truth in our stories when both history and memory fail us\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

History is rarely captured in its nuanced entirety; the full truth often lies in the shadows of the stories left untold. Jeffrey Wade Gibbs\u2019s memoir shines a light on repressed memories and warped histories through an investigation guided by the heart. In tracing the shifting values and perspectives spanning generations, The Peril of Remembering Nice Things <\/em>demonstrates that the truth is equal parts history and introspection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing too direct, nothing too obvious, but in the South, a white man\u2019s suicide an a black man\u2019s murder can have roots that coil together deep, deep beneath the earth.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Twenty years after the death of his father, Jeffrey Wade Gibbs has returned to his conservative, rural hometown in Florida with the goal of investigating the cause of his father\u2019s suicide. With just three days to ask his family members every question he has been ruminating over the decades, the answers he seeks are much more complex than he might have thought. The trauma that led Bob Gibbs to his suicide could be deeply related to the hatred that led to the lynching of John Henry Williams. In a culture shaped by race relations and historical pluralism, everyone is both implicated in and negatively affected by the tragedies of our history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cIsolated, reclusive, understanding the rules of the culture they had deliberately left and held in contempt by that same culture. This describes my father to a T.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The author\u2019s experiences in adulthood set the foundation for his investigation into his father\u2019s suicide. Gibbs\u2019s wife and her Kurdish family regularly experience bigotry in Turkey ranging from microaggressions to outright aggression. Gibbs likens the Kurdish experience to that of Black people in America; their history and experiences are being re-written right in front of them. To learn about his father\u2019s death, Jeffrey must learn about his father\u2019s life which was heavily framed by his own family\u2019s racism. In search of the cause of evil, Gibbs begins to question if evil is passed through the genes. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the conflict I have always felt, that my mother felt that day, too, just seconds after laughing hysterically with her sister-in-law\u2013love and revulsion, affection and horror, friendship and shame.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Gibbs acts as an archaeologist of memory, stitching together historical events, biased convictions, and personal experience. When he asks multiple sources regarding the same event, he receives multiple different recounts. Even when he asks the same person about the same event, their story always changes, whether to save face or because their memory of the event has changed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The memoir tackles heavy and traumatic topics, but what makes this book such a refreshing read is that the author allows the readers and himself to sit with the confusion. The confusion of laughing with an aunt but immediately getting nervous because of a bigoted comment. The confusion of remembering the happy memories of fishing with one\u2019s father, but hearing stories years later of his aggression. The confusion of whether evil is innate or learned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deeper I dig, the more I wonder how accurate any memory can be. Details are always shifting beneath me, changing mid-story like a dream sometimes does.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Deeply introspective. Well researched. Beautifully written. Gibbs\u2019s writing expertly captures the inner turmoil of the American experience without being overly moralistic or didactic. This memoir is an ode to the American South as well as an indictment. In reading this book, readers will come to understand that to truly love something is to also be critical of its failings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Thank you for reading Samantha Hui\u2019s book review of The Peril of Remembering Nice Things <\/em>by Jeffrey Wade Gibbs! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.<\/p>\n

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The post STARRED Book Review: The Peril of Remembering Nice Things<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Peril of Remembering Nice Things by Jeffrey Wade Gibbs Genre: Memoir ISBN: 9781953932297 Print Length: 284 pages Publisher: April Gloaming Publishing Buy from Amazon Buy from Bookshop Reviewed by Samantha Hui A powerful memoir reminding us to find the truth in our stories when both history and memory fail us\u00a0 History is rarely captured […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}