Bureau of Missing Persons

by Porter, Roger J.

• ISBN13: 9780801449871
• ISBN10: 0801449871
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-05-19
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

A devoted reader of autobiographies and memoirs, Roger J. Porter has observed in recent years a surprising number of memoirs by adult children whose fathers have led secret lives. Some of the fathers had second families; some had secret religious lives; others have been criminals, liars, or con men. Struck by the intensely human drama of secrecy and deception played out for all to see, Porter explores the phenomenon in great depth. In Bureau of Missing Persons he examines a large number of these works-eighteen in all-placing them in a wide literary and cultural context and considering the ethical quandaries writers face when they reveal secrets so long and closely held. Among the books Porter treats are Paul Auster's The Invention of Solitude, Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir Fun Home, Essie Mae Washington-Williams's Dear Senator (on her father, Strom Thurmond), Bliss Broyard's One Drop, Mary Gordon's The Shadow Man, and Geoffrey Wolff's The Duke of Deception. He also discusses Nathaniel Kahn's documentary film, My Architect. These narratives inevitably look inward to the writer as well as outward to the parent. The autobiographical children are compelled, if not consumed, by a desire to know. They become detectives, piecing together clues to fill memory voids, assembling material and archival evidence, public and private documents, letters, photographs, and iconic physical objects to track down the parent.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: The Child's Book of Parental Deception	p. 1
Faith-Changing for Life	p. 17
The Wounds of Memory: Shame and Discovery in the Kurzem Family	p. 19
Into the Belly of the Beast: Counterfeiting Identity for Survival	p. 33
Probing Secret Conversions: Helen Fremont's Anguished Inquisition	p. 43
Deciphering Enigma Codes	p. 54
Shadowing the Furtive Father Beyond the Grave: Mary Gordon's Ambivalent Inquiry	p. 56
ôLove Is No Detectiveö: Germaine Greer's Guilty Hunt	p. 65
Family on the Lam: A Son Running After Secrets	p. 74
A Scavenger in the Archives: The ôMemory Boyö Tracks His Parents	p. 83
The Naked Lady's Face and the Detective's Effacement	p. 91
The Men Who Were Not There	p. 99
Sleuthing Amidst the Shards of the Past: Tracking Absence in the Austers	p. 101
The Letters and the Flag: Recuperating a Lost Father	p. 110
Speaking Him into the World: A Daughter Reenters Her Father's History	p. 119
A Father Gone Missing: Documenting a Broken Bond	p. 128
Becoming One's Parent	p. 137
The Limits of Privacy: Decorum and Exposure at the Ackerleys	p. 139
ôLies Like Contagious Diseasesö: The Secrets of the Duke and His Son	p. 147
Imagining Himself in the Paternal Matrix	p. 155
Shared Secrets in the Fun House	p. 161
Breaking the Silence	p. 174
Race, Secrecy, and Discovery: Black on White, White on Black	p. 176
Conclusion: Freedom or Exploitation?	p. 186
Bibliography	p. 189
Index	p. 195
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