Leaving Pipe Shop: Memories of Kin by Deborah E. McDowell


Leaving Pipe Shop: Memories of Kin
Title : Leaving Pipe Shop: Memories of Kin
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0393318435
ISBN-10 : 9780393318432
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 364
Publication : First published September 1, 1998

"McDowell captures the aspirations and realities of the working-class residents of Pipe Shop, infusing them with unshakable dignity, luminous grace, and profound compassion."―Shirlee Taylor Haizlip, San Francisco Chronicle In the illuminating language of memory, Deborah McDowell tells the story of her family, living a segregated life in Bessemer, Alabama, where her father worked at U.S. Foundry and Pipe, nicknamed Pipe Shop. Through the intimate details of their daily lives, she shows us how civil rights affected a working-class town, among three generations of women and men. McDowell movingly uncovers a world rarely portrayed, where she was raised to love the sounds and meanings of words and to value a place and culture that has passed. "What an eye McDowell has for important stories hidden in the everyday details, and what a good storyteller she is."―Tonya Bolden, Washington Post Book World "[McDowell] weaves the plainest drab cotton threads into a magic carpet."―Adele Logan Alexander, Women's Review of Books "Engrossing. . . . The author has a seductive way with words that makes Leaving Pipe Shop as good as a piece of sweet potato pie served after a plate of greens and fried chicken."― Boston Globe Illustrated

Leaving Pipe Shop: Memories of Kin Reviews

  • Mia

    I read this for a history class but it is one of my favorite books. A professor's memoirs of growing up in the South during the Civil Rights movement.

  • Kristine

    I got this book on Tuesday and finished by Sunday. It’s an intense book but the language was mesmerizing. It’s just a well done memoir, a fascinating evocation of a town and a family.

  • Elizabeth Higginbotham

    Leaving Pipe Shop: Memories of Kin by Deborah E. McDowell is really a memoir mostly about kin in her Alabama, Bessemer, outside of Birmingham. The multi-generational family face economic challenges as well as the discrimination of their era. Born after World War II, she has more advantages—attending college and becoming a member of the faculty. However, little of that is in the book, the focus is on the strategies for survival family members employ support themselves and stay together.

    Her grandmother gets a nursing degree and then spends weeks caring for a family. Her father works on and off at the Pipe Shop, never able to launch a career as a tailor. He mother does sew for people and her family but repairs clothing for a dry cleaner. A good look at how Black Southerners survived during deindustrialization of the 1960s and 1970s, but she does not present it as such.

    Deborah’s generation headed to college, but there is much secrecy about their lives. It is like Deborah comes home for funeral and holidays, but this last trip she really investigates the place where her father worked. However, they can find no records of his employment beyond a couple of dates. Amazing, you can be a central part of workforce and still there is no evidence of what you did.

  • Darlene

    Good book.