Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - Ava's Man

Ava's Man
Ava's Man
Author: Rick Bragg
The Pulitzer Prize?winning author of All Over but the Shoutin? continues his personal history of the Deep South with an evocation of his mother?s childhood in the Appalachian foothills during the Great Depression, and the magnificent story of the man who raised her. — Charlie Bundrum was a roofer, a carpenter, a whiskey-maker, a fisherman who kne...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780375410628
ISBN-10: 0375410627
Publication Date: 8/21/2001
Pages: 272
Rating:
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
 35

4.2 stars, based on 35 ratings
Publisher: Knopf
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 1
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Ava's Man on + 45 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
This book was awesome. It totally captured my attention and I could hardly put it down. If you're from the South or have relatives down South, you will get a kick going down memory lane with the author.
reviewed Ava's Man on + 53 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
One of the best memoirs I've had the pleasure of reading. It could have been my grandparents in the book! Loved it...a great writer.
GrannyGamer avatar reviewed Ava's Man on + 153 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
This is actually the author's story of his grandfather but it reads like a novel, full of some wonderfully interesting and "real" characters. It's more than just the story of this one man, though. It's the story of all of the working class poor in the south during the depression and beyond. Tt's the story of my dad who worked the cotton fields in rural Texas growing up before the war, and of all families everywhere who struggled to make it through hard times. It'll make you laugh, and cry, and wish our families today had more of that elusive "something" that is so lacking in modern society. Thank you, Rick Bragg, for this incredible book!
reviewed Ava's Man on + 7 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This is a wonderful book to read about our American past - and the gritty nature of the people who made it was it is today.
reviewed Ava's Man on + 25 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Love this book.....love the writing of Rick Bragg. This books tells of Ava's husband & what type of man is was. Made me think of my dad.....a great man!
Read All 24 Book Reviews of "Avas Man"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

reviewed Ava's Man on + 4 more book reviews
I love Rick Bragg's articles in Southern Living magazine. His humor and wit are also evident in the telling of this story about his maternal grandfather. I did feel, though, some gaps in the storytelling and wanted to know more about the man. This may have been due to the fact that he never knew the man personally.
What he did include in the story was a window into the life of his relatives living a difficult life in the south during the depression. And through all of these difficulties there was still a strong since of family and taking care of each other.
reviewed Ava's Man on + 13 more book reviews
A great lyrical writer, Bragg is at his best telling the stories of his family.
These are people we come to know and care about. Bragg says in interviews that to this day readers will ask how his Mama is doing.
I finished the last sentence of the last page of this book and started the first page all over again.
Bragg is one of 2 authors I read twice: once for the story, once for the prose.
( The other is Tom Franklin )

All Over But the Shouting is a must read also.
ilovebooksanddogs avatar reviewed Ava's Man on + 359 more book reviews
I love this author so much. His writing is like reading poetry and sucks me right into the world he's writing about. I just can't recommend this book or his other 2-All Over But The Shouting" and "The Prince of Frog Town" enough! Just pick them up and read them. You'll understand.
noisynora avatar reviewed Ava's Man on + 130 more book reviews
I liked this book a lot - you don't need to be from the south to enjoy the stories and get a real picture of what life was like for these folks. I found the dialect a bit much at times (the dropped "g's" were rather annoying - "gettin' and grinnin' and pickin' and peelin'") and towards the end the story got a bit long, but it was definitely a labor of love about someone who was larger than life that the author sadly never got to know, and that really transcended the story.
reviewed Ava's Man on + 120 more book reviews
Wish I could have given this book four and three-quarters stars. I liked this one only slightly less than "all Over But The Shoutin'." Maybe this is because the subject is one generation removed from the author, because it is certainly not the writing.
katzpawz avatar reviewed Ava's Man on + 281 more book reviews
Rick Bragg not only writes Americana - he IS Americana. In this book of collected memories, family stories and Southern essays he tells us the story of his Father and Mother. Coming from a hardscrabble life was not cause of worry for Mr. Bragg - just something that ripened him to what is real in his world. By all means READ THIS BOOK!
reviewed Ava's Man on + 20 more book reviews
Fantastic book by a fantastic author! Only Rick Bragg could describe hill people so accurately and respectfully.


Genres: