Random House
Crisis, Pursued by Disaster, Followed Closely by Catastrophe: A Memoir of Life on the Run
Regular price
$13.95 USD
Regular price
Sale price
$13.95 USD
Unit price
per
Shipping calculated at checkout.
Couldn't load pickup availability
Title: Crisis, Pursued by Disaster, Followed Closely by Catastrophe: A Memoir of Life on the Run
Author: Mike O'Connor
ISBN: 9780375504792
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2007
Binding: Hardcover
Language: English
Condition: Used: Very Good
E 1638537
Publisher Description:
Throughout his childhood, Mike O'Connor's family pretended to be normal. But Mike and his two younger sisters knew that their parents were hiding something-a secret they didn't dare talk about. The family appeared to be no different from any of their small-town Texas neighbors-that is, until suddenly, the O'Connor's would flee, leaving with only a few hours' notice, abandoning houses and pets and possessions and running across the border to Mexico.
For all of Mike's adolescence, O'Connor family life alternated between relative comfort and abject poverty-sometimes within a matter of days. From living in a Texas ranch house to living in two rented rooms in an impoverished Mexican village, the O'Connors never knew what lay ahead-only that they must not draw attention to themselves. Though their parents steadfastly denied it, the children knew that something was chasing them-a past that hovered like an invisible enemy, always waiting to strike, always in pursuit.
But it was not until much later, after his parents' deaths, that Mike O'Connor, now an investigative reporter, was able to uncover the truth about his family's past. As the secrets were unlocked one by one and the long trail of deception unfurled, Mike faced the heart-wrenching ramifications of his parents' actions-and made a discovery that shook his family loyalty to its core.
Full of incredible details of a life lived on both sides of the border, in near-poverty and near-wealth, Mike O'Connor's account is a real-life suspense story of childhood mysteries and strange circumstances that will enthrall readers to its very end.
Kirkus Reviews
Journalist O'Connor's riveting debut traces a childhood shaped by his mother's and father's lies and his adult quest to uncover the truths they hid.
The author grew up knowing virtually nothing of his parents' pasts or extended families, though his mother's accent did reveal that she was English. The absence of cousins and grandparents was just one oddity. The O'Connors were also constantly moving, establishing tentative, tenuous households and then fleeing town in the middle of the night. They had a particular fear of government officials, and any encounter with cops left Mrs. O'Connor shaken for days. Given all this moving, the O'Connors were unable to make much money, and they slipped from a precarious perch in the middle class to shocking poverty. In late adolescence, the author finally recognized that life at home was poisonous, his parents unstable and deceptive. He moved out and had only sporadic contact with them in the ensuing decades, when he worked as a reporter for CBS News, the "New York Times "and NPR. Only after both his parents died did O'Connor's two younger sisters beg him to tackle the mystery of their lives as though it were a political scandal he was assigned to expose. He began to dig, grudgingly at first but then increasingly determined to discover the secrets that had shaped his childhood. His research took him to Boston, where he connected with his father's large family; to Burnley, England, where an elderly union organizer told him stories about his mother and uncle; and into the offices of the CIA, FBI and INS, following a sketchy paper trail that shed light on the government's interest in his parents. O'Connor is a sympathetic narrator, never bitter, who reveals the complexities of every last character. By the end of this suspenseful memoir, readers will be just as eager as the author to discover what kept his family on the run.
"This is a lot more than just a memoir. Mike O'Connor brings the pacing of a thriller, the eye of a great reporter and the intrigue of a life on the run to create a fascinating portrait of his own Boston Irish family and the secrets it held in McCarthy-era America. It is a page turner that takes you on a journey out of the confines of the Irish enclaves of New England through the big sky country of Texas and south of the border to Mexico. All along the way,
Author: Mike O'Connor
ISBN: 9780375504792
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2007
Binding: Hardcover
Language: English
Condition: Used: Very Good
E 1638537
Publisher Description:
Throughout his childhood, Mike O'Connor's family pretended to be normal. But Mike and his two younger sisters knew that their parents were hiding something-a secret they didn't dare talk about. The family appeared to be no different from any of their small-town Texas neighbors-that is, until suddenly, the O'Connor's would flee, leaving with only a few hours' notice, abandoning houses and pets and possessions and running across the border to Mexico.
For all of Mike's adolescence, O'Connor family life alternated between relative comfort and abject poverty-sometimes within a matter of days. From living in a Texas ranch house to living in two rented rooms in an impoverished Mexican village, the O'Connors never knew what lay ahead-only that they must not draw attention to themselves. Though their parents steadfastly denied it, the children knew that something was chasing them-a past that hovered like an invisible enemy, always waiting to strike, always in pursuit.
But it was not until much later, after his parents' deaths, that Mike O'Connor, now an investigative reporter, was able to uncover the truth about his family's past. As the secrets were unlocked one by one and the long trail of deception unfurled, Mike faced the heart-wrenching ramifications of his parents' actions-and made a discovery that shook his family loyalty to its core.
Full of incredible details of a life lived on both sides of the border, in near-poverty and near-wealth, Mike O'Connor's account is a real-life suspense story of childhood mysteries and strange circumstances that will enthrall readers to its very end.
Kirkus Reviews
Journalist O'Connor's riveting debut traces a childhood shaped by his mother's and father's lies and his adult quest to uncover the truths they hid.
The author grew up knowing virtually nothing of his parents' pasts or extended families, though his mother's accent did reveal that she was English. The absence of cousins and grandparents was just one oddity. The O'Connors were also constantly moving, establishing tentative, tenuous households and then fleeing town in the middle of the night. They had a particular fear of government officials, and any encounter with cops left Mrs. O'Connor shaken for days. Given all this moving, the O'Connors were unable to make much money, and they slipped from a precarious perch in the middle class to shocking poverty. In late adolescence, the author finally recognized that life at home was poisonous, his parents unstable and deceptive. He moved out and had only sporadic contact with them in the ensuing decades, when he worked as a reporter for CBS News, the "New York Times "and NPR. Only after both his parents died did O'Connor's two younger sisters beg him to tackle the mystery of their lives as though it were a political scandal he was assigned to expose. He began to dig, grudgingly at first but then increasingly determined to discover the secrets that had shaped his childhood. His research took him to Boston, where he connected with his father's large family; to Burnley, England, where an elderly union organizer told him stories about his mother and uncle; and into the offices of the CIA, FBI and INS, following a sketchy paper trail that shed light on the government's interest in his parents. O'Connor is a sympathetic narrator, never bitter, who reveals the complexities of every last character. By the end of this suspenseful memoir, readers will be just as eager as the author to discover what kept his family on the run.
"This is a lot more than just a memoir. Mike O'Connor brings the pacing of a thriller, the eye of a great reporter and the intrigue of a life on the run to create a fascinating portrait of his own Boston Irish family and the secrets it held in McCarthy-era America. It is a page turner that takes you on a journey out of the confines of the Irish enclaves of New England through the big sky country of Texas and south of the border to Mexico. All along the way,
