Review: Pink Houses and Family Taverns

14 May 2005

Let me start by saying that it’s weird to read a book about/set in a place that you (the reader) know intimately. Pink Houses and Family Taverns, among other things, is about life in and around Decatur (that’s Illinois for anyone wondering), which, as many of you know, is where i grew up. I find myself reading Bradway’s essays thinking to myself “that’s not how it is at all. No wait, maybe she’s right.”

But it doesn’t really matter which one of us is “right.” What matters is that Bradway has penned a collection of essays that treat Decatur and the surrounding rural areas fairly. While the picture painted of my hometown isn’t the prettiest, it also isn’t the typical depressing picture painted by the media of a dying factory town. To me that is refreshing.

Perhaps this book will only interest those of us who come from Central Illinois, but I doubt it. While the place of the stories is centered around Decatur, the essays tackle much more than just place. while the people in Bradway’s essays (herself included) seem to be informed and molded by the places they inhabit (city/country, country/back country), they are also shaped, like the land itself, by time.

I think i’m going to recommend this book to everyone I know, especially those of you who aren’t from Central Illinois.