Ghosts of Fourth Street: My Family, a Death, and the Hills of Duluth

ISBN: 1517920787

Author: Hertzel, Laurie

Condition: New

An open, frank rumination on a brothers death and its reverberations throughout a familyEvery family has its stories and secrets. Laurie Hertzels family had more than its share. At an early age, Laurie, the seventh of the ten Hertzel children, took on the challenge of sorting them out. Not old enough to be one of the Big Kids, yet too old to be with the Three Little Kids, she spent most of her time alone, reading, wandering, and observing her family as they moved around her in their house in Duluth. Though her parents were not warm, there were moments of closeness in those years-gifts of Laura Ingalls Wilders Little House books and special trips to the dairy for a sundae-but everything shattered after the sudden death of Lauries oldest sibling, eighteen-year-old Bobby, when she was just nine years old.Moving back and forth in time, Laurie reflects on Bobbys death and what happens to a familys story when no one can talk about a tragedy and its toll. In Ghosts of Fourth Street, readers witness how the apparition of memories, the shadow of needs unmet, and the spirit of a family once whole all linger long after the death of a child and brother. As Laurie shares her experiences, we see the emergence of her fascination with story and truth as she teaches herself to read and finds solace and inspiration in books amid the tensions and competing agendas within her big, complicated family.With keen attention, candor, and grace, Laurie paints a vivid portrait of 1960s Duluth as she poignantly examines a family contending with grief and the fact that life steadily goes on-snow and school buses, Christmases and Thanksgivings, ice skating and tobogganing and climbing trees, with ghosts always lingering at the edges.Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly.