On the Outskirts of Normal

by Monroe, Debra

• ISBN13: 9780870745607
• ISBN10: 0870745603
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-05-15
• Publisher: Southern Methodist Univ Pr
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Summary

Mired in debt and on the run from a series of broken homes, about-to-be-divorced Debra Monroe pulls up in front of a tumbledown cabin outside a small Texas town. Its isolationmiles from her teaching job in a neighboring cityfeels right. She buys the house and ultimately doubles its size as she waits for the call from the adoption agency to tell her she's going to be a mom. Now in her forties, she is swept into the strange new world of single motherhood, complicated by the fact that she's white and her daughter is black. As Monroe learns to deal with her daughter's hair and to re-enter the dating scene, all the while coping with her own and her daughter's major illnesses, they live under the magnified scrutiny of the small, conservative town. Confronting her past in order to make a better life for her daughter, Monroe rebuilds not only a half-ruined cabin in the woods but her sense of what it is that makes a sustainable family. "Having driven across the country to see her brand-new adopted granddaughter, Debra Monroe's mother says the first thing that comes into her head: 'I knew she'd be black, but not this black.' Monroe simply says, 'Mom, there's a blank in the baby book calledGrandma's First Words.' The sly, dry humor of this, the offering of the second chance, the reminder that everything, even the mistakes, will be written downtells you most of what you need to know about Monroe's approach to life, and to memoir. Her generosity of spirit never fails her."Marion Winik, author ofFirst Comes Love "Monroe's memoir forges a remarkable canniness about motherhood and its twin perils, grief and love."Karen Brennan, author ofBeing with Rachel

Author Biography

Debra Monroe lived in South Dakota, Wisconsin, Kansas, Utah, and North Carolina before moving to Texas in 1992. She is the author of four previous books, including two collections of stories, The Source of Trouble and A Wild, Cold State, and two novels, Newfangled and Shambles. Her books have been widely reviewed and have won many awards, including the Flannery O'Connor Award for Fiction, the John Gardner Fellowship, and The Violet Crown Award. Her books have appeared on "Best Ten" lists in Elle and Vanity Fair magazines and in Borders' "Original Voices" series. She has published fiction and nonfiction in many journals and magazines. She teaches in the MFA program at Texas State University and lives in Austin, Texas.