Sylvia Brownrigg, author of The Whole Staggering Mystery, in conversation with Claire Messud

When:
Tuesday, May 07, 2024 7:00p -
8:00p

Where:
Porter Square Books
25 White St.
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02140

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Admission:
FREE

Hosted by:
...
psb_events Porter Square Books

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Event website:
https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/sylvia-brownrigg-author-whole-staggering-mystery-conversation-claire-messud

Porter Square Books is excited to welcome Sylvia Brownrigg for the release of her memoir The Whole Staggering Mystery! Author Claire Messud will join Brownrigg in conversation. This event will take place on Tuesday, May 7 at 7pm at Porter Square Books (25 White St. Cambridge, MA 02140).


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ABOUT THE WHOLE STAGGERING MYSTERY

Sylvia Brownrigg's “wise, intimate, and deliciously entertaining memoir" (Carol Edgarian) reconstructs a poignant story of fathers lost and found


When Sylvia Brownrigg received a package addressed to her father that had been lost for over fifty years, she wanted to deliver it to him before it was too late. She did not expect that her father, Nick, would choose not to open it. A few years later, she and her brother finally did.


Nick, an absent father, was a would-be writer and back-to-the-lander who lived off the grid in Northern California. Nick’s own father, Gawen—also absent—had been a wellborn Englishman who wrote a Bloomsbury-like novel about lesbian lovers, before moving to Kenya and ultimately dying a mysterious death at age twenty-seven. Brownrigg was told Gawen had likely died by suicide.


Reconstructing Gawen’s short, colorful life from revelations in the package takes her through glamorous 1930s London and staid Pasadena, toward the last gasp of the British Empire in Kenya, and from there, deep into the California redwoods, where Nick later carved out a rugged path in the wilderness, keeping his English past at bay. Vividly weaving together the lives of her father and grandfather, through memory and imagination, Brownrigg explores issues of sexuality and silences, and childhoods fractured by divorce. In her uncovering of this lost family, she writes movingly of daughterhood and of parenthood, gradually making her own story whole.


PRAISE FOR THE WHOLE STAGGERING MYSTERY

"A legacy of absent fathers haunts Berkeley author Sylvia Brownrigg, who traces the story of her father, who lived off the grid in Northern California, as well as her grandfather’s far-flung, colorful life, in this probing memoir." —Hannah Bae, San Francisco Chronicle


"Engrossing . . . Brownrigg’s skillful interweaving of slippery narrative threads adds up to an immersive reading experience." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"The Whole Staggering Mystery is a remarkable achievement. Spanning decades and continents, yet psychologically intimate and precise, bringing to vivid life the unforgettable characters that people Sylvia Brownrigg's family, this haunting book offers at once the satisfaction of memoir and the revelations of fiction." ––Claire Messud, author of The Woman Upstairs


ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Sylvia Brownrigg is the author of several acclaimed works of fiction, including the novels Morality Tale; The Delivery Room, winner of the Northern California Book Award; Pages for You, winner of the Lambda Award; and The Metaphysical Touch; and a collection of stories, Ten Women Who Shook the World. Brownrigg’s works have been included in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times lists of notable fictions and have been translated into several languages. Her novel for children, Kepler’s Dream, written under the name Juliet Bell was published in 2012 and turned into a feature film. Brownrigg lives with her family in London and in Berkeley, California.


Claire Messud is the author of six works of fiction. A recipient of a Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her family.

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05/07/2024 19:00:00 05/07/2024 20:00:00 America/New_York Sylvia Brownrigg, author of The Whole Staggering Mystery, in conversation with Claire Messud <p><strong>Porter Square Books</strong>&nbsp;is excited to welcome&nbsp;<strong>Sylvia Brownrigg&nbsp;</strong>for the release of her memoir&nbsp;<a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/book/978...

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