This rich and revealing book, from the acclaimed, bestselling author of Spending and The Shadow Man, is part memoir, part study of the shaping of a writer's voice. Using the example of her own life, Mary Gordon investigates the role that place plays in the formation of identity -- the connections between where we live and who we are, between how we experience place and how we become ourselves. With wisdom, humor, and intelligence, Gordon illuminates the relationship between the physical, emotional, and intellectual architectures of our lives. Each of the eight essays focuses on a different place or series of spaces from an era in Mary Gordon's life: from her youth, growing up Catholic and on the "wrong side of the tracks" to her present life as an accomplished author and teacher at Barnard College.
